Lighted  to  Lighten 


fornia 
>nal 

ty 


The  Hope  of  India 


By  Alice  B.  Van  Doren 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


REGINA  THUMBOO 

The  First  M.  A.  from  Isabella  Thoburn 
College,  Lucknow 


Lighted  to  Lighten 

The  Hope  of  India 


A  Study  of  Conditions 
among  Women  in  India 


By  ALICE  B.  VAN  DOREN 


1922 


Published  by 

THE  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE  ON  THE  UNITED  STUDY 
OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

West  Medford,  Massachusetts 


Copyright,  1922,  by 

THE  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE  ON  THE  UNITED  STUDY 
OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


The  Vermont  Printing  Company 

Brattleboro 


75 


FOREWORD 

THE  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE  sends  out  this 
book    on    Indian    girlhood    to    meet    the    young 
women  of  America  with  their  high  privilege  of  edu- 
cation, that  often  unrealized  and  unacknowledged  gift 
of  Christ. 

Miss  Van  Doren  has  given  emphasis  in  the  book 
to  the  privileged  young  woman  of  India;  she  shows 
the  possibilities,  and  yet  you  will  see  in  it  something 
of  the  black  shadow  cast  by  that  religion  which  holds 
no  place  for  the  redemption  of  woman.  If  you  could 
see  it  in  its  hideousness  which  the  author  can  only 
hint  at,  you  would  say  as  two  American  college  girls 
said  after  a  tour  through  India,  "We  cannot  endure 
it.  Don't  take  us  to  another  temple.  We  never 
dreamed  that  anything  under  the  guise  of  religion 
could  be  so  vile."  And  somehow  there  has  seemed  to 
them  since  a  note  of  insincerity  in  poetic  phrasings 
of  Hindu  writers  who  pass  over  entirely  gross  forms 
of  idolatrous  faith  to  indulge  in  noble  sentiments 
which  suggest  plagiarism.  A  distinguished  author 
said  recently,  "I  can  never  read  Tagore  again  after 
seeing  the  women  of  India."  From  sacred  temple  slums 
of  South  India  to  shambles  of  Kalighat  it  is  re- 
volting, sickening,  shameful.  It  is  pleasanter  to  dwell 
on  the  beauties  of  Hinduism  and  ignore  the  unprint- 
able actualities,  but  if  we  are  to  help  we  must  feel 


3CS1277 


4  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

how  terrible  and  immediate  the  need  is.  No  one  can 
really  meet  that  need  but  the  educated  Indian  Chris- 
tian women  whom  God  is  preparing  in  this  day  for 
service.  They  are  the  ones  who  are  Lighted  to 
Lighten.  They  are  the  Hope  of  the  future.  Fifty 
years  ago,  after  the  Civil  war,  the  light  began  in 
the  organization  of  Woman's  Missionary  Societies. 
Through  all  the  years  women  have  gone,  never  very 
many,  sometimes  not  very  strong,  limited  in  various 
ways,  but  with  one  stern  determination,  at  any  cost 
"to  save  some." 

Now  at  the  close  of  your  war,  young  women  of 
America,  a  new  era  is  beginning  in  which  you  are 
called  to  take  your  part.  You  will  not  be  the  pioneers. 
The  trail  is  blazed.  It  has  been  proven  that  Indian 
girls  can  be  educated,  their  minds  are  keen  and  eager, 
they  are  Christian,  many  of  them,  in  a  sense  which 
girls  of  America  cannot  comprehend.  Their  task  is 
infinitely  greater  than  yours.  If  they  fail,  the  redemp- 
tion of  Indian  womanhood  will  not  be  realized,  and 
so  we  see  them  taking  as  the  college  emblem,  not  the 
beautiful,  decorated  brass  lamp  of  the  palace,  but  the 
common,  little  clay  lamp  of  the  poorest  home  and 
going  out  with  the  flickering  flame  to  lighten  the  deep 
darkness  of  their  land.  College  girls  in  America  some- 
times wear  their  degree  as  a  decoration.  To  these 
girls  it  is  equipment,  armor,  weapons,  for  the  tear- 
ing down  of  strongholds.  These  girls  must  be  leaders. 
They  cannot  escape  the  challenge. 

Until  now  the   undertaking  has   seemed   hopeless. 


FOREWORD  5 

What  could  a  few  foreign  women  do  among  those 
millions?  But  the  great,  silent  revolution  has  begun. 
Eastern  women  are  seeking  self-determination  as  na- 
tions seek  it.  They  are  asserting  rights  to  soul  and 
mind  and  body.  They  refuse  to  be  chattels,  and  going 
out  to  release  these  millions  come  these  little  groups 
of  Christian  college  girls  who  are  to  furnish  leader- 
ship. Have  we  no  part  ?  Yes,  as  allies  we  are  needed 
as  never  before.  Unless  from  the  faculties  of  our 
colleges,  as  well  as  from  our  student  volunteers,  ade- 
quate aid  is  sent  at  once  these  little  groups  may  fail. 
This  is  your  "moral  equivalent  of  war."  To  go  and 
help  them  in  this  Day  which  is  their  Day  of  Decision 
requires  vision,  devotion,  a  glorious  giving  of  life 
which  will  count  just  in  proportion  as  the  need  is 
immediate,  the  battle  in  doubt,  failure  possible.  Mis- 
sion Boards  must  go  haltingly  for  lack  of  women 
and  of  funds  until  groups  of  women  from  colleges  in 
America  hear  the  call  of  Christ  and  follow  Him,  for 
God  Himself  will  not  do  this  work  alone.  He  has 
chosen  that  it  shall  be  done  through  you.  From  our 
colleges  and  medical  schools  recruits  and  funds  must 
be  sent  until  those  who  are  in  the  new  colleges  over 
there  are  trained  and  ready  to  win  India  for  their 
Master.  To  bring  them  over  here  for  training  is  not 
altogether  good.  There  are  dangers  in  this  our  age 
of  jazz.  It  is  not  good  to  send  out  very  young  girls 
to  a  far  country  during  the  formative  years  lest  a 
strange  language  and  customs  and  a  new  civilization 
should  unfit  them  to  go  back  to  their  "Main  Street" 


6  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

and  adjust  themselves.  The  Indian  Colleges  are  best 
for  the  undergraduate  Indian  girl  and  are  the  only 
ones  for  the  great  majority.  We  must  make  these 
the  best  possible,  truly  Christian  in  their  teaching  and 
standards,  in  impressions  on  the  lives  of  students  as 
well  as  in  their  mission  to  the  people  of  India. 

This  book  is  for  study  in  our  church  societies  of 
older  girls  and  of  women,  and  very  especially  for  girls 
in  the  colleges,  who  should  consider  this  as  one  of  the 
greatest  fields  for  service  in  the  world  to-day.  We 
preach  internationalism.  Let  our  churches  and  col- 
leges practice  it. 

MRS.  HENRY  W.  PEABODY 
Miss  ALICE  M.  KYLE 
MRS.  FRANK  MASON  NORTH 
Miss  GERTRUDE  SCHULTZ 
Miss  0.  H.  LAWRENCE 
MRS.  A.  V.  POHLMAN 
Miss  EMILY  TILLOTSON 


NOTE:  The  Central  Committee  recommends  Dr.  Fleming's 
book,  "Building  with  India",  for  advanced  study  classes  and 
groups  who  wish  really  to  study.  For  Women's  societies 
wishing  programs  for  meetings  we  think  Miss  Van  Doren's 
book  better  as  it  is  less  difficult  and  more  concrete. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

FOREWORD 3 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  8 

PREFACE    9 

INTRODUCTION   11 

I     YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY   13 

II     AT    SCHOOL    31 

A  HIGH  SCHOOL 37 

III  THE  GARDEN  OF  HID  TREASURE  57 

LUCKNOW  61 

IV  AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE 83 

V     SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL 110 

VI    WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS 130 

INDEX  153 


Facing  Page 

Regina   Thumboo    Frontispiece 

What  Will  Life  Bring  to  Her?   16 

Meenachi  of  Madura   21 

Married  to  the  God   24 

Will  Life  Be  Kind  to  Her?    28 

A  Temple  in  South  India   33 

The  Sort  of  Home  that  Arul  Knew 37 

Priests  of  the  Hindu  Temple   44 

Tamil  Girls  Preparing  for  College  48 

The  Village  of  the  Seven  Palms   43 

Basketball  at  Isabella  Thoburn  College,  Lucknow 53 

Biology  Class  at  Lucknow  College  60 

A  Social  Service  Group — Lucknow  College  65 

Village   People    69 

Girls  of  All  Castes  Meet  on  Common  Ground  76 

Shelomith   Vincent    80 

Street  Scenes  in  Madras    85 

Scenes  at  Madras  College   92 

At  Work   and   Play    97 

The  New  Dormitory  at  Madras  College  101 

The  Old  India   108 

Contrasts     112 

First  Building  at  New  Medical  School,  Vellore  115 

Dr.  Scudder  and  the  Medical  Students  at  Vellore  117 

Where  God  is  a  Stone  Image — Where  God  is  Love 119 

A  Medical  Student  in  Vellore  122 

Better   Babies    124 

Freshman  Class  at  Vellore — Latest  Arrivals  at  Vellore  126 

Dora  Mohini  Maya  Das   131 

Mrs.  Paul  Appasamy   135 

Putting  Spices  in  Baby's  Milk  138 

Baby  on   Scales    142 

A  Representative  of  India's  Womanhood  152 

8 


PREFACE 

THESE  chapters  are  written  with  no  claim  to 
their  being  an  accurate  representation  of  life  in 
all  India.  That  India  is  a  continent  rather  than  a 
country  is  a  statement  so  often  repeated  that  it  has 
become  trite.  To  understand  the  details  of  girl-life  in 
all  parts  of  this  continent  would  require  a  variety  of 
experience  which  the  present  writer  cannot  claim. 
This  book  is  written  frankly  from  the  standpoint  of 
one  who  has  spent  fifteen  years  in  the  South,  and 
known  the  North  only  from  brief  tours  and  the  ac- 
quaintance which  reading  can  give. 

For  help  in  advice  and  criticism  thanks  are  due  to 
friends  too  numerous  to  name ;  especial  mention,  how- 
ever, should  be  made  of  the  kindness  of  three  Indian 
critics  who  have  read  the  manuscript :  Miss  Maya  Das 
of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  Calcutta,  Mr.  Chandy  of  Banga- 
lore, and  Mr.  Athiseshiah  of  Voorhees  College,  Vellore. 


TO-MORROW 

"If  there  were  no  Christian  College  in  India,  the  foreshad- 
owings  of  a  great  To-morrow  would  demand  its  creation. 
It  is  needed : 

(1)  for   training   native    leadership    in   this   age   when   all 
India  is  demanding  Indian  leadership  along  all  lines, 
and  is  impatient  of  foreign  control. 

(2)  for  developing  Christian  workers  for  the  multitudes  in 
India  who  are  turning  to  Christianity  and  need  care 
and  shepherding  in  schools  and  in  all  phases  of  daily 
life. 

(3)  for  the  education  of  those  who  will  be  the  hpmemakers 
of  their  country,  that  the  stamp  of  Christianity  may 
be  upon  the  minds  and  lives  of  mothers  and  wives  in 
this  New  India. 

(4)  for  moralizing  the  social  life  in  India  which  otherwise 
would    have    the    bias    of    an    increasingly    dispropor- 
tionate educated  male  population. 

(5)  for  demonstrating  the  uplifting  influence  of  Christ  upon 
that  sex  which  has  been  so  disastrously  ignored  and 
repressed   in   India,  and  for  proving  that  the  best  is 
none  too  good  for  Indian  womanhood.  'Better  women' 
are  the  strongest  factor  in  the  development  of  a  Better 
India. 

(6)  for  definitely  distributing  the  ideals  of  Christian  wom- 
anhood to  all  parts  of  Southern  Asia  from  which  the 
College  draws   its  students.     Personal  witness   to  the 
value    of    Christian    education    for    women    is    a    real 
Kingdom  message. 

(7)  for  training  women  to  take  their  part  in  the  new  na- 
tional life  of  awakened  India.     This  training  must  be 
by  contact  with  lives  already  devoted  to  Christ,  more 
than  by  precept,  for  'character  is  caught,  not  taught.' 

(8)  for  meeting  the  needs  of  the  more  educated  classes  of 
India,  as  the  evangelistic  and  other  parts  of  mission 
work  minister  specifically  to  the  needs  of  the  masses." 

(9)  In   furnishing  pre-medical   training   for   the   hundreds 
of   women   who   must   be   educated   to    follow   in   the 
footsteps  of  the  Great  Physician. 

10 


INTRODUCTION 

TO  say  that  the  world  is  one  is  to-day's  common- 
place. What  causes  its  new  solidarity?  What 
but  the  countless  hands  that  reach  across  its  shores  and 
its  Seven  Seas,  hands  that  devastate  and  hands  that 
heal !  There  are  the  long  fingers  of  the  cable  and 
telegraph  that  pry  through  earth's  hidden  places, 
gathering  choice  bits  of  international  gossip  and 
handing  them  out  to  all  the  breakfast  tables  of  the 
Great  Neighborhood.  There  are  the  swift  fingers  of 
transcontinental  train  and  ocean  liner,  pushing  the 
dweller  from  the  West  into  the  Far  East,  the  man  from 
the  prairie  into  the  desert.  There  are  the  devastating 
fingers  of  war  that  first  fashion  and  then  carry  infernal 
machines  and  spread  them  broadcast  over  towns  and 
ships  and  fertile  fields.  Thank  God,  there  are  also 
hands  of  kindness  that  dispense  healing  medicines,  that 
scatter  schoolbooks  among  untaught  children,  ind  the 
Word  of  God  in  all  parts  of  earth's  neighborhood. 
And,  lastly,  there  are  hands  that  seem  never  to  leave 
the  house  roof  and  the  village  street,  yet  gain  the 
power  of  the  long  reach  and  set  thousands  of  candles 
alight  across  the  world. 

"Why  don't  you  let  them  alone?  Their  religion  is 
good  enough  for  them,"  was  the  classic  comment  of 
the  armchair  critic  of  a  generation  ago.  Time  has 
answered  it.  Nothing  in  to-day's  world  ever  lets  any- 
thing else  alone.  We  read  the  morning  paper  in 

11 


12  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

terms  of  continents.  To  the  League  of  Nations  China 
and  Chile  are  concerns  as  intimate  as  Upper  Silesia. 
To  the  Third  Internationale  the  obscure  passes  of  Af- 
ghanistan are  a  near  frontier.  Suffrage  and  prohibi- 
tion are  echoed  in  the  streets  of  Poona  and  in  the 
councils  of  Delhi.  Labor  strikes  in  West  Virginia  and 
Wales  produce  reactions  in  the  cotton  mills  of  Madras. 
And  the  American  girl  in  high  school,  in  college,  in 
business,  in  society,  in  a  profession,  is  producing  her 
double  under  tropic  suns,  in  far-off  streets  where 
speech  and  dress  and  manners  are  strange,  but  the 
heart  of  life  is  one.  That  time  is  past ;  we  cannot  let 
them  alone;  we  can  only  choose  what  shall  be  the 
shape  and  fashioning  done  by  hands  that  reach  across 
the  sea. 


CHAPTER  ONE 
YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY 

"Once  upon  a  "Once  upon  a  time"1  men  and  worn- 
Time."  en  dwelt  in  caves  and  cliffs  and  fash- 
ioned curious  implements  from  the  stones  of  the  earth 
and  painted  crude  pictures  upon  the  walls  of  their  rock 
dwellings.  Archaeologists  find  such  traces  in  England 
and  along  the  river  valleys  of  France,  among  the 
sands  of  Egyptian  deserts  and  in  India,  where  armor 
heads,  ancient  pottery,  and  cromlechs  mark  the  passing 
of  a  long  forgotten  race.  Thus  India  claims  her  place 
in  the  universal  childhood  of  the  world. 

The  Brown-  "Once  upon  a  time,"2  when  the  Stone 
skinned  Tribes.  Men  had  passed,  a  strange,  new  civ- 
ilization is  thought  to  have  girdled  the  earth,  passing 
probably  in  a  "brown  belt"  from  Mediterranean  lands 
across  India  to  the  Pacific  world  and  the  Americas. 
Its  sign  was  the  curious  symbol  of  the  Swastika;  its 
passwords  certain  primitive  customs  common  to  all 
these  lands.  Its  probable  Indian  representatives  are 
known  today  as  Dravidians — the  brown-skinned  peo- 
ple still  dominating  South  Indian  life,  whose  exact 
place  in  the  family  of  races  puzzles  every  anthropolo- 
gist. It  was  then  that  civilization  was  first  walking  up 


1.  History  of  India,  E.  W.  Thompson,  Christian  Literature  Society, 
London  and  Madras,  pp.  11-12. 

2.  Outline  of  History,  H.  G.  Wells,  Vol.  I,  pp.  146-8. 

13 


14  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

and  down  the  great  river  valleys  of  the  Old  World. 
While  the  first  pyramids3  were  a-building  beside  the 
long  green  ribbon  of  the  Nile  and  the  star-gazers4  of 
Mesopotamia  were  reading  future  events  from  her 
towers  of  sun-dried  bricks,  Dravidian  tribes  were 
cultivating  the  rich  mud  of  the  Ganges  valley,  a  slow- 
changing  race.  Did  the  lonely  traveler,  I  wonder,  troll 
the  same  air  then  as  now  to  ward  away  evil  spirits 
from  the  star-lit  road?  Did  the  Dravidian  maiden  do 
her  sleek  hair  in  the  same  knot  at  the  nape  of  her 
brown  neck,  and  poise  the  earthen  pot  with  the  same 
grace  on  her  daily  pilgrimage  to  the  river  ? 

The  Aryan  "Once  upon  a  time"  Abraham  pitched 

Brother.  his  tent  beneath  the  oaks  of  Mamre, 

and  Moses  shepherded  his  father-in-law's  flocks  at 
"the  back  side  of  the  desert."  It  was  then  that  down 
through  the  grim  passes  of  the  Himalayas,  where  now 
the  British  regiments  convoy  caravans  and  guard  the 
outposts  of  Empire,  a  people  of  fair  skin  and  strange 
speech  migrated  southward  to  the  Land  of  the  Five 
Rivers  and  the  fat  plains  of  the  Ganges.  Aryan  even 
as  we,  the  Brahman  entered  India,  singing  hymns  to 
the  sun  and  the  dawn,  bringing  with  him  the  stately 
Sanskrit  speech,  new  lore  of  priest  and  shrine,  new 
pride  of  race  that  was  to  cleave  society  into  those  hori- 
zontal strata  that  persist  to-day  in  the  caste  system. 
Thus  through  successions  of  Stone-Age  men,  Dravid- 


3.  Outline  of  History,  H.  G.  Wells,  Vol.  I,  pp.  196-199. 

4.  Outline  of  History,  H.  G.  Wells,  Vol.  I,  pp.  189-190. 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  15 

ian  tribes,  and  Aryan  invaders,  India  stretches  her 
roots  deep  into  the  past.  But  while  there  were  trans- 
piring these 

"Old,  unhappy,  far-off  things 
And  battles  long  ago," 

where  were  we?  The  superior  Anglo-Saxon  who 
speaks  complacently  of  "the  native"  forgets  that  dur- 
ing that  same  "once  upon  a  time"  when  civilization  was 
old  in  India,  his  ancestors,  clad  in  deer  skin  and  blue 
paint,  were  stalking  the  forests  of  Europe  for  food. 

Gifts  to  the  Nor  did  these  old  civilizations  for- 

West.  bear  to  reach  hands  across  the  sea 

and  share  with  the  young  and  lusty  West  the  fruits  of 
their  knowledge.  On  a  May  morning,  as  skilful  car- 
riers swing  you  up  to  the  heights  of  the  South  India 
hills,  there  is  a  sudden  sound  reminiscent  of  the  home 
barnyard,  a  scurry  of  wings  across  the  path,  and  a 
gleam  of  glossy  plumage;  Mr.  Jungle  Cock  has  been 
disturbed  in  his  morning  meal.  Did  you  know  that 
from  his  ancestors  are  descended  in  direct  lineage  all 
the  Plymouth  Rocks  and  the  White  Leghorns  of  the 
poultry  yard,  all  the  Buff  Orpingtons  that  win  gold 
medals  at  poultry  shows?  Other  food  stuffs  India 
originated  and  shared.  Sugar  and  rice  were  delicacies 
from  her  fields  carried  over  Roman  roads  to  please  the 
palates  of  the  Caesars.6 

Traditions  of  Besides  these  contributions  to  the 
Womanhood.  world's  pantry,  there  were  gifts  of 

5.    Ancient  Times,  Breasted,  pp.  658-9. 


16  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

the  mind  and  spirit.  To  those  days  of  long  ago  mod- 
ern India  looks  back  as  to  a  golden  age,  for  she  was 
then  in  the  forefront  of  civilization,  passing  out  her 
gifts  with  a  generous  hand.  Of  that  ancient  heritage 
not  the  least  part  is  the  tradition  of  womanhood, — a 
heritage  trampled  in  the  dust  of  later  ages,  its  restora- 
tion only  now  beginning  through  that  liberty  in  Christ 
which  sets  free  the  woman  of  the  West  and  of  the 
East. 

Much  might  be  written  on  the  place  of  the  Indian 
woman  in  folk-lore  epic  and  drama.  Helen  of  Troy 
and  Dido  of  Carthage  pale  into  common  adventuresses 
when  placed  beside  the  quiet  courage  and  utter  self- 
abnegation  of  such  Indian  heroines  as  Sita  and  Damay- 
anti. 

The  story  of  Rama  and  Sita  is  the  Odyssey  of  the 
East,  crooned  by  grandmothers  over  the  evening  fires ; 
sung  by  wandering  minstrels  under  the  shade  of 
the  mango  grove ;  trolled  by  travelers  jogging  in  bul- 
lock carts  along  empty  moonlit  roads.  Sita's  devotion 
is  a  household  word  to  many  a  woman-child  of  India. 
Little  Lakshmi  follows  the  adventures  of  the  loved 
heroine  as  she  shares  Rama's  unselfish  renunciation  of 
the  throne  and  exile  to  the  forest  with  its  alarms  of 
wild  beasts  and  wild  men.  She  thrills  with  fear  at 
Sita's  abduction  by  the  hideous  giant,  Ravana,  and 
the  wild  journey  through  the  air  and  across  the  sea 
to  the  Ceylon  castle.  She  weeps  with  Rama's  despair, 
and  again  laughs  with  glee  at  the  antics  of  his  monkey 
army  from  the  south  country,  as  they  build  their 


WHAT  WILL  LIFE  BRING  TO  HER? 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  17 

bridge  of  stones  across  the  Ceylon  straits  where  now- 
a-days  British  engineers  have  followed  in  their  simian 
track  and  train  and  ferry  carry  the  casual  traveler 
across  the  gaps  jumped  by  the  monkey  king  and  his 
tribe.  Sita's  sore  temptations  in  the  palace  of  her  con- 
queror and  her  steadfast  loyalty  until  at  last  her  hus- 
band comes  victorious — they  are  part  of  the  heritage 
of  a  million  Lakshmis  all  up  and  down  the  length  of 
India. 

Of  the  loves  of  Nala  and  Damayanti  it  is  difficult 
to  write  in  few  words.  From  the  opening  scene  where 
the  golden-winged  swans  carry  Nala's  words  of  love  to 
Damayanti  in  the  garden,  sporting  at  sunset  with  her 
maidens,  the  old  tale  moves  on  with  beauty  and  with 
pathos.  The  Swayamvara,  or  Self  Choice,  harks  back 
to  the  time  when  the  Indian  princess  might  herself 
choose  among  her  suitors.  Gods  and  men  compete  for 
Damayanti's  hand  among  scenes  as  bright  and  stately 
as  the  lists  of  King  Arthur's  Court,  until  the  princess, 
choosing  her  human  lover,  throws  about  his  neck 
the  garland  that  declares  her  choice.  Happy  years 
follow,  and  the  birth  of  children.  Then  the  scene 
changes  to  exile  and  desertion.  Through  it  all  moves 
the  heroine,  sharing  her  one  garment  with  her  un- 
worthy lord,  "thin  and  pale  and  travel-stained,  with 
hair  covered  in  dust,"  yet  never  faltering  until  her 
husband,  sane  and  repentant,  is  restored  to  home  and 
children  and  throne. 

So  the  ancient  folk-lore  goes  on,  in  epic  and  in 
drama,  with  the  woman  ever  the  heroine  of  the  tale. 


18  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

True  it  is  that  her  virtues  are  limited;  obedience, 
chastity,  and  an  unlimited  capacity  for  suffering  large- 
ly sum  them  up.  They  would  scarcely  satisfy  the 
ambitions  of  the  new  woman  of  today;  yet  some 
among  us  might  do  well  to  pay  them  reverence. 

Those  were  the  high  days  of  Indian  womanhood. 
Then,  as  the  centuries  passed,  there  came  slow  eclipse. 
Lawgivers  like  Manu6  proclaimed  the  essential  im- 
purity of  a  woman's  heart;  codes  and  customs  began 
to  bind  her  with  chains  easy  to  forge  and  hard  to 
break.  Later  followed  the  catastrophe  that  completed 
the  change.  The  Himalayan  gateways  opened  once 
more  and  through  them  swarmed  a  new  race  of  in- 
vaders, passing  out  of  those  barren  plains  of  Central 
Asia  that  have  been  ever  the  breeding  grounds  of 
nations  and  swooping  upon  India's  treasures.  In  one 
hand  the  green  flag  of  the  Prophet,  in  the  other  the 
sword,  these  followers  of  Muhammad  sealed  for  a 
millennium  the  end  of  woman's  high  estate. 

All  was  not  lost  without  a  mighty  struggle.7  From 
those  days  come  the  tales  of  Rajput  chivalry — tales 
that  might  have  been  sung  by  the  troubadours  of 
France.  Rajput  maidens  of  noble  blood  scorned  the 
throne  of  Muslim  conquerors.  Litters  supposed  to 
carry  captive  women  poured  out  warriors  armed  to 
the  teeth.  Men  and  women  in  saffron  robes  and 
bridal  garments  mounted  the  great  funeral  pyre,  and 
when  the  conquering  Allah-ud-din  entered  the  silent 

6.  Code  of  Manu,  Book  9,  quoted  Lux  Christ!,  Mason,  p.  14. 

7.  India   through,  the   Ages,   Florence   Annie   Steele,   Routledge,   pp. 
95-104,  116-18. 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  19 

city  of  Chitore  he  found  no  resistance  and  no  captives, 
for  no  one  living  was  left  from  the  great  Sacrifice  of 
Honorable  Death. 

After  that  came  an  end.  Everywhere  the  Muham- 
madan  conqueror  desired  many  wives;  in  a  far  and 
alien  land  his  own  womankind  were  few.  Again  and 
again  the  ordinary  Hindu  householder,  lacking  the  des- 
perate courage  of  the  Rajput,  stood  by  helpless,  like 
the  Armenian  of  to-day,  while  his  wife  and  daughter 
were  carried  off  from  before  his  eyes,  to  increase  the 
harem  of  his  ruler.  Small  wonder  that  seclusion  be- 
came the  order  of  the  day — a  woman  would  better 
spend  her  life  behind  the  purdah  of  her  own  home  than 
be  added  to  the  zenana  of  her  conqueror.  Later  when 
the  throes  of  conquest  were  over  and  Hindu  women 
once  more  ventured  forth  to  a  wedding  or  a  festival, 
small  wonder  that  they  copied  the  manners  of  their 
masters,  and  to  escape  familiarity  and  insult  became 
as  like  as  possible  to  women  of  the  conquering  race. 
Thus  the  use  of  the  veil  began. 

At  that  beginning  we  do  not  wonder ;  what  makes  us 
marvel  is  that  a  repressing  custom  became  so  strong 
that,  even  after  a  century  and  a  half  of  British  rule, 
all  over  North  India  and  among  some  conservative 
families  of  the  South  seclusion  and  the  veil  still  per- 
sist. Walk  the  streets  of  a  great  commercial  town 
like  Calcutta,  and  you  find  it  a  city  of  men.  An  occa- 
sional Parsee  lady,  now  and  then  an  Indian  Christian, 
here  and  there  women  of  the  cooly  class  whose  lowly 


20  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

station  has  saved  their  freedom — otherwise  woman- 
kind seems  not  to  exist. 

The  high  hour  of  Indian  womanhood  had  passed, 
not  to  return  until  brought  back  by  the  power  of 
Christ,  in  whose  kingdom  there  is  "neither  male  nor 
female,  but  all  are  one."  Yet  as  the  afterglow  flames 
up  with  a  transient  glory  after  the  swift  sunset,  so 
in  the  gathering  darkness  of  Muhammadan  domination 
we  see  the  brightness  of  two  remarkable  women. 

There  was  Nur  Jahan,  the  "Light  of  the  World," 
wife  of  the  dissolute  Jahangir.  Never  forgetful,  it 
would  seem,  of  a  childish  adventure  when  the  little 
Nur  Jahan  in  temper  and  pride  set  free  his  two  pet 
doves,  twenty  years  later  the  Mughal  Emperor  won 
her  from  her  soldier  husband  by  those  same  swift 
methods  that  David  employed  to  gain  the  wife  of 
Uriah,  the  Hittite. 

And  when  Nur  Jahan  became  queen  she  was  ruler 
indeed,  "the  one  overmastering  influence  in  his  life."8 
From  that  time  on  we  see  her,  restraining  her  husband 
from  his  self-indulgent  habits,  improving  his  admin- 
istration, crossing  flooded  rivers  and  leading  attacks  on 
elephants  to  save  him  from  captivity;  "a  beautiful 
queen,  beautifully  dressed,  clever  beyond  compare, 
contriving  and  scheming,  plotting,  planning,  shielding 
and  saving,  doing  all  things  for  the  man  hidden  in  the 
pampered,  drink-sodden  carcass  of  the  king;  the  man 
who,  for  her  at  any  rate,  always  had  a  heart."  Think 
of  Nur  Jahan's  descendants,  hidden  in  the  zenanas  of 

8.    India  through  the  Ages,  pp.  190-200. 


MEENACHI  OF  MADURA 
The  Average  Girl,  a  Bride  at  Twelve 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  21 

India.  When  their  powers,  age-repressed,  are  set  free 
by  Christian  education,  what  will  it  mean  for  the  fu- 
ture of  their  nation? 

Then  there  came  the  lady  of  the  Taj,Mumtaz Mahal, 
beloved  of  Shah  Jahan,  the  Master  Builder.  We  know 
less  of  her  history,  less  of  the  secret  of  her  charm, 
only  that  she  died  in  giving  birth  to  her  thirteenth 
child,  and  that  for  all  those  years  of  married  life  she 
had  held  her  husband's  adoration.  For  twenty-two 
succeeding  years  he  spent  his  leisure  in  collecting 
precious  things  from  every  part  of  his  world  that 
there  might  be  lacking  no  adornment  to  the  most  ex- 
quisite tomb  ever  raised.  And  when  it  was  finished — 
rare  commentary  on  the  contradiction  of  Mughal  char- 
acter— the  architect  was  blinded  that  he  might  never 
produce  its  like  again. 

All  that  was  a  part  of  yesterday — a  story  of  rise  and 
fall ;  of  woman's  repression,  with  outbursts  of  great- 
ness; of  countless  treasures  of  talent  and  possibilities 
unrecognized  and  undeveloped,  hidden  behind  the 
doors  of  Indian  zenanas.  What  of  to-day? 

TO-DAY:  Meenachi  of  Madura,  if  she  could  be- 

The  Average  Girl,  come  articulate,  might  tell  us  some- 
thing of  the  life  of  the  average  girl  to-day.  Being 
average,  she  belongs  neither  to  the  exclusive  streets  of 
the  Brahman,  nor  to  the  hovels  of  the  untouchable 
outcastes,  but  to  the  area  of  the  great  middle  class 
which  is  in  India  as  everywhere  the  backbone  of  soci- 
ety. Meenachi's  father  is  a  weaver  of  the  far-famed 


22  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

Madura  muslins  with  their  gold  thread  border.  Her 
earliest  childhood  memory  is  the  quiet  weavers'  street 
where  the  afternoon  sun  glints  under  the  tamarind 
trees  and,  striking  the  long  looms  set  in  the  open  air, 
brings  out  the  blue  and  mauve,  the  deep  crimson  and 
purple  and  gold  of  the  weaving. 

There  were  rollicking  babyhood  days  when  Mee- 
nachi,  clad  only  in  the  olive  of  her  satin  skin  with  a 
silver  fig  leaf  and  a  bead  necklace  for  adornment, 
wandered  in  and  out  the  house  and  about  the  looms 
at  will.  With  added  years  came  the  burden  of  cloth- 
ing, much  resented  by  the  wearer,  but  accepted  with 
philosophic  submission,  as  harder  things  would  be 
later  on.  Toys  are  few  and  simple.  The  palmyra  rat- 
tle is  exchanged  for  the  stiff  wooden  doll,  painted  in 
gaudy  colors,  and  the  collection  of  tiny  vessels  in 
which  sand  and  stones  and  seeds  provide  the  equiva- 
lent of  mud  pies  in  repasts  of  imaginary  rice  and 
curry.  Household  duties  begin  also.  Meenachi  at  the 
age  of  six  grasps  her  small  bundle  of  broom-grass  and 
sweeps  each  morning  her  allotted  section  of  verandah. 
Soon  she  is  helping  to  polish  the  brass  cooking  pots  and 
to  follow  her  mother  and  older  sisters,  earthen  water- 
pot  on  hip,  on  their  morning  and  evening  pilgrimages 
to  the  river. 

Being  only  an  average  girl,  Meenachi  will  never  go 
to  school.  There  are  ninety  and  nine  of  these  "aver- 
age" unschooled  girls  to  the  one  "above  the  average" 
to  whom  education  offers  its  outlet  for  the  questing 
spirit.  She  looks  with  curiosity  at  the  books  her 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  23 

brother  brings  home  from  high  school,  but  the  strange, 
black  marks  which  cover  their  pages  mean  nothing  to 
her.  Not  for  her  the  release  into  broad  spaces  that 
comes  only  through  the  written  word.  For,  mark  you, 
to  the  illiterate  life  means  only  those  circumscribed 
experiences  that  come  within  the  range  of  one's  own 
sight  and  touch  and  hearing.  "What  I  have  seen,  what 
I  have  heard,  what  I  have  felt" — there  experience 
ends.  From  personal  unhappiness  there  is  no  escape 
into  the  world  current. 

Meenachi  is  twelve  and  the  freedom  of  the  long 
street  is  hers  no  more.  Yellow  chrysanthemums  in  her 
glossy  hair,  a  special  diet  of  milk  and  curds  and  sweet 
cakes  fried  in  ghee,  and  the  outspoken  congratula- 
tions of  relatives,  male  and  female,  mark  her  entrance 
into  the  estate  of  womanhood.  What  the  West  hides, 
the  East  delights  to  reveal. 

Now  follows  the  swift  sequel  of  marriage.  The 
husband,  of  just  the  right  degree  of  relationship,  has 
long  been  chosen.  The  family  exchequer  is  drained  to 
the  dregs  to  provide  the  heavy  dowry,  the  burdensome 
expenditure  for  wedding  feast  and  jewels,  and  the  pres- 
entatiqn  of  numerous  wedding  garments  to  equally 
numerous  and  expectant  relatives.  Meenachi  is  car- 
ried away  by  the  splendor  of  new  clothes  and  jewels 
and  processions,  and  the  general  tamash  of  the  occa- 
sion. Has  she  not  the  handsomest  bridegroom  and 
the  most  expensive  trousseau  of  this  marriage  month  ? 
Is  she  not  the  envy  of  all  her  former  playmates  ?  Only 
now  and  then  comes  a  strange  feeling  of  loneliness 


24  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

when  she  thinks  of  leaving  the  dear,  familiar  roof,  the 
narrow  street  with  its  tamarind  trees  and  many-col- 
ored looms.  The  mother-in-law's  house  is  a  hundred 
miles  away,  and  the  mother-in-law's  face  is  strange. 

Will  Meenachi  be  sad  or  happy?  The  answer  is 
complex  and  hard  to  find,  for  it  depends  on  many  con- 
tingencies. The  husband — what  will  he  be?  He  is 
not  of  Meenachi's  choosing.  Did  she  choose  her 
father  and  mother,  and  the  house  in  which  she  was 
born?  Were  they  not  chosen  for  her,  "written  upon 
her  forehead"  by  her  Karma,  her  inscrutable  fate? 
Her  husband  has  been  chosen ;  let  her  make  the  best  of 
the  choice. 

Will  she  be  happy?  The  future  years  shall  make 
answer  by  many  things.  Will  she  bear  sons  to  her 
husband  ?  If  so,  will  her  young  body  have  strength  for 
the  pains  of  childbirth  and  the  torturings  of  ignorant 
and  brutal  midwives?  Will  her  Karma  spare  to  her 
the  life  of  husband  and  children?  In  India  sudden 
death  is  never  far;  pestilence  walks  in  darkness  and 
destruction  wastes  at  noon  day.  The  fear  of  disease, 
the  fear  of  demons,  the  fear  of  death  will  be  never  far 
away;  for  these  fears  there  will  be  none  to  say,  "Be 
not  afraid." 

So  Meenachi,  the  bride,  passes  out  into  the  unknown 
of  life,  and  later  into  the  greater  unknown  of  death. 
No  one  has  taught  her  to  say  in  the  valley  of  the  shad- 
ow, "I  will  fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art  with  me."  The 
terrors  of  life  are  with  her,  but  its  consolations  are  not 
hers. 


MARRIED  TO   THE   GOD 
A  Little  Temple  Girl 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  25 

Widowhood.  Of  widowhood  I  shall  say  little. 
Since  the  ancient  days  of  suttee  when  the  wife 
mounted  her  husband's  funeral  pyre  volumes  have 
been  written  on  the  lot  of  the  Indian  widow.  To-day 
in  some  cases  the  power  of  Christianity  has  awakened 
the  spirit  of  social  reform  and  the  rigors  of  widow- 
hood are  lessened.  Among  the  majority  the  old  re- 
mains. In  general,  the  higher  you  rise  in  the  social 
scale,  the  sterner  the  conventions  and  fashions  of 
widowhood  become. 

In  Madras  you  may  visit  a  Widow's  Home,  where 
through  the  wise  efforts  of  a  large-hearted  woman  in 
the  Educational  Department  of  Government  more 
than  a  hundred  Brahman  girl-widows  live  the  life  of 
a  normal  schoolgirl.  No  fastings,  no  shaven  heads, 
no  lack  of  pretty  clothes  or  jewels  mark  them  off  from 
the  rest  of  womanhood.  Schools  and  colleges  open 
their  doors  and  professional  life  as  teacher  or  doctor 
offers  hope  of  human  contact  and  interest  for  these 
to  whom  husband  and  child  and  home  are  forever 
forbidden.  In  all  India  you  may  find  a  very  few 
such  institutions,  but  "what  are  these  among  so 
many?"  The  millions  of  repressed  child  widows  still 
go  on. 

Wives  of  the  Worse  is  the  fate  of  those  whose 
Idol.  Karma  condemns  them  to  a  life  of 

religious  prostitution.  Perhaps  the  first-born  son  of 
the  family  lies  near  to  death.  The  parents  vow  a 
frantic  vow  to  the  deity  of  the  local  temple.  "Save 


26  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

our  son's  life,  O  Govinda;  our  youngest  daughter 
shall  be  dedicated  to  thy  service."  The  son  recovers, 
the  vow  must  be  fulfilled,  and  bright-eyed,  laughing 
Lakshmi,  aged  eight,  is  led  to  the  temple,  put  through 
the  mockery  of  a  ceremony  of  marriage  to  the  black 
and  misshapen  image  in  the  inmost  shrine,  and  thence- 
forth trained  to  a  religious  service  of  nameless  in- 
famy. 

The  story  of  Hinduism  holds  the  history  of  some 
devout  seekers  after  God,  of  sincere  aspiration,  in 
some  cases  of  beautiful  thought  and  life.  This  deep- 
est blot  is  acknowledged  and  condemned  by  its  better 
members.  Yet  in  countless  temples,  under  the  bright- 
ness of  the  Indian  sun,  the  iniquity,  protected  by 
vested  interests,  goes  on  and  no  hand  is  lifted  to  stay. 
Suppose  each  American  church  to  shelter  its  own 
house  of  prostitution,  its  forces  recruited  from  the 
young  girls  of  the  congregation,  their  services  at  the 
disposal  of  its  worshippers.  The  thought  is  too  black 
for  utterance;  yet  just  so  in  the  life  of  India  has  the 
service  of  the  gods  been  prostituted  to  the  lusts  of  men. 

Reform.  The  achievements  of  Christianity  in 

India  are  not  confined  to  the  four  million  who  consti- 
tute the  community  that  have  followed  the  new  Way. 
Perhaps  even  greater  has  been  the  reaction  it  has  ex- 
cited in  the  ranks  of  Hinduism  among  those  who  would 
repudiate  the  name  of  Christian.  Chief  among  the 
abuses  of  Hinduism  to  be  attacked  has  been  the  tra- 
ditional attitude  toward  woman.  Child  marriage  and 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  27 

compulsory  widowhood  are  condemned  by  every  social 
reformer  up  and  down  the  length  of  India.  The  battle 
is  fought  not  only  for  women,  but  by  them  also.  Agi- 
tation for  the  suffrage  has  been  carried  on  in  India's 
chief  cities.  In  Poona  not  long  since  the  educated 
women  of  the  city,  Hindu,  Muhammadan,  and  Chris- 
tian, joined  in  a  procession  with  banners,  demanding 
compulsory  education  for  girls. 

Of  women  not  Christian,  but  freed  from  ancient 
bonds  by  this  reflex  action  of  Christian  thought,  per- 
haps the  most  eminent  example  is  Mrs.  Sarojini  Naidu. 
Of  Brahman  birth,  but  English  education,  she  dared 
to  resist  the  will  of  her  family  and  the  tradition  of  her 
caste  and  marry  a  man  of  less  than  Brahman  extrac- 
tion. Now  as  a  writer  of  distinction  second  only  to 
Tagore  she  is  known  to  Europe  as  well  as  to  India. 
In  her  own  country  she  is  perhaps  loved  best  for  her 
intense  patriotism,  and  is  the  best  known  woman  con- 
nected with  the  National  Movement. 

Chiefly,  however,  it  is  among  the  Christian  com- 
munity that  woman's  freedom  has  become  a  fact. 
Women  such  as  Mrs.  Naidu  exist,  but  they  are  few. 
Now  and  then  one  reads  of  a  case  of  widow-remar- 
riage successfully  achieved.  Too  often,  however,  the 
Hindu  reformer,  however  well-meaning  and  sincere, 
talks  out  his  reformation  in  words  rather  than  deeds. 
He  lacks  the  support  of  Christian  public  opinion;  he 
lacks  also  the  vitalizing  power  of  a  personal  Christian 
experience.  It  is  easy  to  speak  in  public  on  the  evils 
of  early  marriage;  he  speaks  and  the  audience  ap- 


28  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

plauds.  He  knows  too  well  that  in  the  applauding 
audience  there  is  not  a  man  whose  son  will  marry  his 
daughter  if  she  passes  the  age  of  twelve.  So  the  ardent 
reformer  talks  on,  with  the  abandon  of  the  darky 
preacher  who  exhorted  his  audience  "Do  as  I  say  and 
not  as  I  do";  and  hopes  that  in  some  future  incar- 
nation life  will  be  kinder,  and  he  may  be  able  to  carry 
out  the  excellent  practices  he  really  desires. 

A  Hindu  girl  of  high  family  was  allowed  to  go  to 
college.  There  being  then  no  women's  college  in  her 
part  of  India,  she  entered  a  Government  University 
in  a  large  city,  where  there  were  a  few  other  women 
students.  Western  standards  of  freedom  prevailed 
and  were  accepted  by  men  and  women.  Rukkubai 
shared  in  social  as  well  as  academic  life.  With  a 
strong  arm  and  a  steady  eye,  she  distinguished  herself 
at  tennis  and  badminton,  and  came  even  to  play  in 
mixed  doubles,  a  mark  of  the  most  "advanced"  social 
views  to  be  found  in  India. 

After  college  came  marriage  to  a  man  connected 
with  the  family  of  a  well  known  rajah.  The  husband 
was  not  only  the  holder  of  a  University  degree  similar 
to  her  own,  but  a  zealous  social  reformer,  eloquent  in 
his  advocacy  of  women's  freedom.  Life  promised  well 
for  Rukkubai.  A  year  or  two  later  a  friend  visited  her 
behind  the  purdah,  with  the  doors  of  the  world  shut 
in  her  face.  The  zeal  of  the  reforming  husband  could 
not  stand  against  the  petty  persecutions  of  the  older 
women  of  the  family.  "I  wish,"  said  Rukkubai,  "that 


WILL  LIFE  BE  KIND  TO  HER? 


YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY  29 

I  had  never  known  freedom.  Now  I  have  known — 
and  lost" 

Yet  not  all  reformers  are  such.  There  are  an  in- 
creasing number  whose  deeds  keep  pace  with  their 
words.  Such  may  be  found  among  the  members  of 
The  Servants  of  India  Society,  who  spend  part  of  the 
year  in  social  studies;  the  remainder  in  carrying  to 
ignorant  people  the  message  they  have  learned. 

Such  is  the  heritage  of  the  Hindu  woman  of  ancient 
freedom ;  centuries  when  traditions  of  repression  have 
gripped  with  ever-tightening  hold;  to-day  a  new  fer- 
ment in  the  blood,  a  new  striving  toward  purposes  half 
realized. 

Of  to-morrow,  who  can  say?  The  future  is  hidden, 
but  the  chapters  that  follow  may  perhaps  serve  to  bring 
us  into  touch  with  a  few  of  the  many  forces  that  are 
helping  to  shape  the  day  that  shall  be. 


CHAPTER  TWO 
AT  SCHOOL 

Hindu  or  1°  the  last  chapter  we  have  spoken 

Christian.  of  the  Hindu  girl  as  yet  untouched 

by  Christianity,  save  as  such  influence  may  have  fil- 
tered through  into  the  general  life  of  the  nation.  We 
have  had  vague  glimpses  of  her  social  inheritance, 
with  its  traditions  of  an  ancient  and  honorable  estate 
of  womanhood ;  of  the  limitations  of  her  life  to-day ;  of 
her  half-formed  aspirations  for  the  future. 

Of  education  as  such  nothing  has  been  said.  As  we 
turn  now  from  home  to  school  life,  we  shall  turn  also 
from  the  Hindu  community  to  the  Christian.  This 
does  not  mean  that  none  but  Christian  girls  go  to 
school.  In  all  the  larger  and  more  advanced  cities  and 
in  some  towns  you  will  find  Government  schools  for 
Hindu  girls  as  well  as  those  carried  on  by  private  en- 
terprise, some  of  them  of  great  efficiency.  Yet  this 
deliberate  turning  to  the  school  life  of  the  Christian 
community  is  not  so  arbitrary  as  it  seems. 

In  the  first  place,  the  proportion  of  literacy  among 
Christian  women  is  far  higher  than  among  the  Hindu 
and  Muhammadan  communities.  Again,  because  a 
large  proportion  of  Christians  have  come  from  the  de- 
pressed classes,  the  "submerged  tenth,"  ground  for 
uncounted  centuries  under  the  heel  of  the  caste  sys- 
tem, their  education  is  also  a  study  in  social  uplift,  one 

31 


32  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

of  the  biggest  sociological  laboratory  experiments  to 
be  found  anywhere  on  earth.  And,  lastly,  it  is  through 
Christian  schools  that  the  girls  and  women  of  America 
have  reached  out  hands  across  the  sea  and  gripped 
their  sisters  of  the  East. 

The  School  "And  the  dawn  comes  up  like  thunder 

under  the  Palm    Outer  China  'cross  the  Bay." 
Trees.  Far  from  China  and  far  inland  from 

the  Bay  is  this  South  Indian  village,  but  the  dawn 
flashes  up  with  the  same  amazing  swiftness.  Life's 
daily  resurrection  proceeds  rapidly  in  the  Village  of 
the  Seven  Palms.  Flocks  of  crows  are  swarming  in 
from  their  roosting  place  in  the  palmyra  jungle  beside 
the  dry  sand  river ;  the  cattle  are  strolling  out  from  be- 
hind various  enclosures  where  they  share  the  family 
shelter;  all  around  is  the  whirr  of  bird  and  insect  as 
the  teeming  life  of  the  tropics  wakes  to  greet  "my  lord 
Sun." 

Under  the  thatch  of  each  mud-walled  hovel  of  the 
outcaste  village  there  is  the  same  stir  of  the  returning 
day.  Sheeted  corpses  stretched  on  the  floor  suddenly 
come  to  life  and  the  babel  of  village  gossip  begins. 

In  the  house  at  the  far  end  of  the  street,  Arul  is 
first  on  her  feet,  first  to  rub  the  sleep  from  her  eyes. 
There  is  no  ceremony  of  dressing,  no  privacy  in  which 
to  conduct  it  if  there  were.  Arul  rises  in  the  same 
scant  garment  in  which  she  slept,  snatches  up  the  pot 
of  unglazed  clay  that  stands  beside  the  door,  poises  it 
lightly  on  her  hip,  and  runs  singing  to  the  village  well, 


AT  SCHOOL  33 

where  each  house  has  its  representative  waiting  for  the 
morning  supply.  There  is  the  plash  of  dripping  water, 
the  creak  of  wheel  and  straining  rope,  and  the  chatter 
of  girl  voices. 

The  well  is  also  the  place  for  making  one's  morning 
toilet.  Arul  dashes  the  cold  water  over  her  face, 
hands,  and  feet.  No  soap  is  required,  no  towel — the 
sun  is  shining  and  will  soon  dry  everything  in  sight. 
Next  comes  the  tooth-brushing  act,  when  a  smooth 
stick  takes  the  place  of  a  brush,  and  "Kolynos"  or 
"Colgate"  is  replaced  by  a  dab  of  powdered  charcoal. 
Arul  combs  her  hair  only  for  life's  great  events,  such 
as  a  wedding  or  a  festival,  and  changes  her  clothes  so 
seldom  that  it  is  better  form  not  to  mention  it. 

Breakfast  is  equally  simple, — and  the  "simple  life" 
at  close  range  is  apt  to  lose  many  of  its  charms.  In 
the  corner  of  the  one  windowless  room  that  serves  for 
all  domestic  purposes  stands  the  earthen  pot  of  black 
gruel.  It  is  made  from  the  ragi,  little,  hard,  round 
seeds  that  resemble  more  than  anything  else  the  rape 
seed  fed  to  a  canary.  It  looks  a  sufficiently  unappe- 
tizing breakfast,  but  contentment  abounds  because  the 
pot  is  full,  and  that  happens  only  when  rains  are 
abundant  and  seasons  prosperous.  The  Russian 
peasant  and  his  black  bread,  the  Indian  peasant  and  his 
black  gruel — dark  symbols  these  of  the  world's  hunger 
line. 

There  is  no  sitting  down  to  share  even  this  simple 
meal,  no  conception  of  eating  as  a  social  event,  a 
family  sacrament.  The  father,  as  lord  and  master, 


34  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

must  be  served  first ;  then  the  children  seize  the  one  or 
two  cups  by  turn,  and  last  of  all  comes  Mother.  Arul 
gulps  her  breakfast  standing  and  then  dashes  into  the 
street.  She  is  one  of  the  village  herd  girls ;  the  sun  is 
up  and  shining  hot,  and  the  cattle  and  goats  are  jostling 
one  another  in  their  impatience  to  be  off  for  the  day. 

The  dry  season  is  on  and  all  the  upland  pastures  are 
scorched  and  brown.  A  mile  away  is  the  empty  bed 
of  the  great  tank.  A  South  Indian  tank  in  our  par- 
lance would  be  an  artificial  lake.  A  strong  earth  wall, 
planted  with  palmyras,  encircles  its  lower  slope.  The 
upper  lies  open  to  receive  surface  water,  as  well  as 
the  channel  for  the  river  that  runs  full  during  the  mon- 
soon months.  During  the  "rains"  the  country  is  full 
of  water,  blue  and  sparkling.  Now  the  water  is  gone, 
the  crops  are  ripening,  and  in  the  clay  tank  bottom  the 
cattle  spend  their  days  searching  for  the  last  blades  of 
grass. 

"Watch  the  cows  well,  Little  Brother,"  calls  Arul, 
as  she  hurries  back  on  the  narrow  path  that  winds  be- 
tween boulders  and  thickets  of  prickly  pear  cactus. 
Green  parrots  are  screaming  in  the  tamarind  trees  and 
overhead  a  white-throated  Brahmany  kite  wheels  mo- 
tionless in  the  vivid  blue.  The  sun  is  blazing  now,  but 
Arul  runs  unheeding.  It  is  time  for  school — she 
knows  it  by  the  sun-clock  in  the  sky.  "Female  educa- 
tion," as  the  Indian  loves  to  call  it,  is  not  yet  fashion- 
able in  the  Village  of  the  Seven  Palms.  With  twenty- 
five  boys  there  are  only  three  girls  who  frequent  its 
halls  of  learning.  Of  the  three  Arul  is  one.  Her 


AT  SCHOOL  35 

father,  lately  baptized,  knows  but  little  of  what 
Christ's  religion  means,  but  the  few  facts  he  has 
grasped  are  written  deeply  in  his  simple  mind  and 
show  life-results.  One  of  these  ideas  is  that  the  way 
out  and  up  is  through  the  gate  of  Christian  education. 
And  so  it  is  that  Arul  comes  to  school.  She  is  but  eight, 
yet  with  a  mouth  to  feed  and  a  body  to  clothe,  and  the 
rice  pot  often  empty,  the  halving  of  her  daily  wage 
means  self-denial  to  all  the  family.  So  it  is  that  Arul, 
instead  of  herding  cattle  all  day,  runs  swiftly  back  to 
the  one-roomed  schoolhouse  under  the  cocoanuts  and 
arrives  not  more  than  half  an  hour  late. 

The  schoolroom  is  so  primitive  that  you  would 
hardly  recognize  it  as  such.  Light  and  air  and  space 
are  all  too  little.  There  are  no  desks  or  even  benches.  A 
small,  wooden  blackboard  and  the  teacher's  table  and 
rickety  chair  are  all  that  it  can  boast  in  the  way  of 
equipment.  The  only  interesting  thing  in  sight  is  the 
children  themselves,  rows  of  them  on  the  floor,  writing 
letters  in  the  sand.  Unwashed  they  are,  uncombed  and 
almost  unclothed,  but  with  all  the  witchery  of  child- 
hood in  their  eyes.  In  that  bare  room  lies  the  possi- 
bility of  transforming  the  life  of  the  Village  of  the 
Seven  Palms. 

But  the  teacher  is  innocent  of  the  ways  of  modern 
pedagogy,  and  deep  and  complicated  are  the  snares  of 
the  Tamil  alphabet  with  its  two  hundred  and  sixteen 
elusive  characters.  BaJfiinj,  too,  are  the  mysteries  of 
number  combination.  "If  six  mangoes  cost  three 
annas,  how  much  will  one  mango  cost?"  Arul  never 


36  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

had  an  anna  of  her  own,  how  should  she  know  ?  The 
teacher's  bamboo  falls  on  her  hard,  little  hand,  and  two 
hot  tears  run  down  and  drop  on  the  cracked  slate.  The 
way  to  learning  is  long  and  beset  with  as  many  thorns 
as  the  crooked  path  through  the  prickly  pear  cactus. 
Bible  stories  are  happier.  Arul  can  tell  you  how  the 
Shepherds  sang  and  all  about  the  little  boy  who  gave 
his  own  rice  cakes  and  dried  fish,  to  help  Jesus  feed 
hungry  people.  She  has  been  hungry  so  often  that 
that  story  seems  real. 

The  years  pass  over  Arul's  head,  leaving  her  a  little 
taller,  a  little  fleeter  of  foot  as  she  hurries  back  from 
the  pasture,  a  little  wiser  in  the  ways  of  God  and  men. 
Still  her  father  holds  out  against  the  inducements  of 
child  labor.  Arul  shall  go  to  school  as  long  as  there  is 
anything  left  for  her  to  learn.  And  into  Arul's  eyes 
there  has  come  the  gleam  of  a  great  ambition.  She 
will  leave  the  Village  of  the  Seven  Palms  and  go  into 
the  wide  world.  The  most  spacious  existence  she 
knows  of  is  represented  by  the  Girls'  Boarding  School 
in  the  town  twenty  miles  away.  To  enter  that  school, 
to  study,  to  become  a  teacher  perhaps — but  beyond  that 
the  wings  of  Arul's  imagination  have  not  yet  learned  to 
soar.  The  meaning  of  service  for  Christ  and  India, 
the  opportunity  of  educated  womanhood,  such  ideas 
have  not  yet  entered  Arul's  vocabulary.  She  will  learn 
them  in  the  days  to  come. 

Countless  villages  of  the  Seven  Palms;  countless 
schools-  badly  equipped  and  poorly  taught;  countless 
Aruls — feeling  within  them  dim  gropings,  half-formed 


H 
<J 
W 
H 

H 

S 
O 
W 

fe 
o 

H 

tt 
O 


AT  SCHOOL  37 

ambitions.  Somewhere  in  America  there  are  girls 
trained  in  rural  education  and  longing  for  the  chance 
for  research  and  original  work  in  a  big,  untried  field. 
What  a  chance  for  getting  together  the  girl  and  the 
task! 


Where  the  Girls  If  tne  S^s  °f  India  could  pass  you  in 
Come  from.  long  procession,  you  would  need  to 

count  up  to  one  hundred  before  you  found  one  who  had 
had  Arul's  opportunity  of  learning  just  to  read  and 
write.  Infinitely  smaller  is  the  proportion  of  those 
who  go  into  secondary  schools.  American  women 
have  been  responsible  for  founding,  financing,  and 
teaching  many  of  the  Girls'  High  Schools  that  exist. 
They  are  of  various  sorts.  Some  have  new  and  up-to- 
date  plants,  modelled  on  satisfactory  types  of  Ameri- 
can buildings.  Others  are  muddling  along  with  old- 
time,  out-grown  schoolrooms,  spilling  over  into 
thatched  sheds,  and  longing  for  the  day  when  the 
spiritual  structure  they  are  erecting  will  be  expressed 
in  a  suitable  material  form.  Schools  vary  also  as  to 
social  standing,  discipline,  and  ideals;  yet  there  are 
common  features  and  problems,  and  one  may  be  more 
or  less  typical  of  all.  Most  include  under  one  organi- 
zation everything  from  kindergarten  to  senior  high 
school,  so  that  the  school  is  really  a  big  family  of  one 
or  two  or  four  hundred,  as  the  case  may  be. 

The  girls  come  from  many  grades  of  Indian  life. 
The  great  majority   are   Christians,   for  few   Hindu 


38  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

parents  are  yet  sufficiently  "advanced"  to  desire  a  high 
school  education  for  their  daughters,  and  those  who  do 
usually  send  their  girls  to  a  Government  school  where 
caste  regulations  will  be  observed  and  where  there 
will  be  no  religious  teaching. 

Some  of  the  Christian  girls  come  from  origins  as 
crude  as  that  of  Arul.  To  such  the  simplest  elements 
of  hygiene  are  unknown,  and  cleanly  and  decent  living 
is  the  first  and  hardest  lesson  to  be  learned.  Others  are 
orphans,  waifs,  and  strays  cast  up  from  the  currents  of 
village  life.  Uncared  for,  undernourished,  with  mem- 
ories of  a  tragic  childhood  behind  them,  it  is  sometimes 
an  impossible  task  to  turn  these  little,  old  women  back 
into  normal  children.  But  the  largest  number  are  chil- 
dren of  teachers  and  catechists,  pastors,  and  even  col- 
lege professors,  who  come  from  middle  class  homes, 
with  a  greater  or  less  collection  of  Christian  habits  and 
ideals.  With  all  these  is  a  small  scattering  of  high 
caste  Hindu  girls,  the  children  of  exceptionally  liberal 
parents.  The  resulting  school  community  is  a  won- 
derful example  of  pure  democracy.  Ignorant  village 
girls  learn  more  from  the  "public  opinion"  of  their  bet- 
ter trained  schoolmates  than  from  any  amount  of  for- 
mal discipline;  while  daughters  of  educated  families 
share  their  inheritance  and  come  to  realize  a  little  of 
the  need  of  India's  illiterate  masses.  So  school  life  be- 
comes an  experiment  in  Christian  democracy,  where  a 
girl  counts  only  for  what  she  can  do  and  be;  where 
each  member  contributes  something  to  the  life  of  the 
group  and  receives  something  from  it. 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  39 

What  the  Girls  Schools  are  schools  the  world  over, 
Study.  and  the  agonies  of  the  three  R's  are 

common  to  children  in  whatever  tongue  they  learn. 
An  Indian  kindergarten  is  not  so  different  from  an 
American,  except  for  language  and  local  color.  Equip- 
ment is  far  simpler  and  less  expensive,  but  there  is  the 
same  spontaneity,  the  same  joy  of  living;  laughter  and 
play  have  the  same  sound  in  Tamil  as  in  English.  Be- 
sides, Indian  kindergartens  produce  some  charming 
materials  all  their  own — shiny  black  tamarind  seeds, 
piles  of  colored  rice,  and  palm  leaves  that  braid  into 
baby  rattles  and  fans. 

So,  too,  a  high  school  course  is  much  the  same  even 
in  India.  The  right-angled  triangle  still  has  an  hypote- 
nuse, and  quadratics  do  not  simplify  with  distance, 
while  Tamil  classics  throw  Vergil  and  Cicero  into  the 
shade.  The  fact  that  high  school  work  is  all  carried 
on  in  English  is  the  biggest  stumbling  block  in  the 
Indian  schoolgirl's  road  to  learning.  What  would  the 
American  girl  think  of  going  through  a  history  reci- 
tation in  Russian,  writing  chemistry  equations  in 
French,  or  demonstrating  a  geometry  proposition  in 
Spanish?  Some  day  Indian  education  may  be  con- 
ducted in  its  own  vernaculars ;  to-day  there  are  neither 
the  necessary  text-books,  nor  the  vocabulary  to  express 
scientific  thought.  As  yet,  and  probably  for  many 
years  to  come,  the  English  language  is  the  key  that  un- 
locks the  House  of  Learning  to  the  schoolgirl.  Indian 
classics  she  has  and  they  are  well  worth  knowing ;  but 
even  Shakespeare  and  Milton  would  hardly  console  the 


40  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

American  girl  for  the  loss  of  all  her  story  books,  from 
"Little  Women"  and  "Pollyanna"  up — or  down — to 
the  modern  novel.  To  understand  English  sufficiently 
to  write  and  speak  and  even  think  in  it  is  the  big  job  of 
the  High  School.  It  is  only  the  picked  few  who  attain 
unto  it;  those  few  are  possessed  of  brains  and  perse- 
verance enough  to  become  the  leaders  of  the  next  gen- 
eration. 

School  Life.  It  is  not  unusual  for  an  Indian  girl 

to  spend  ten  or  twelve  years  in  such  a  boarding  school. 
An  institution  is  a  poor  substitute  for  a  home,  but  in 
such  cases  it  must  do  its  best  to  combine  the  two.  This 
means  that  books  are  almost  accessories;  school  life 
is  the  most  vital  part  of  education. 

To  such  efforts  the  Indian  girl  responds  almost  in- 
credibly. Whatever  her  faults — and  she  has  many — 
she  is  never  bored.  Her  own  background  is  so  narrow 
that  school  opens  to  her  a  new  world  of  surprise. 
"Isn't  it  wonderful!"  is  the  constant  reaction  to  the 
commonplaces  of  science.  No  less  wonderful  to  her 
is  the  liberty  of  thinking  and  acting  for  herself  that 
self-government  brings. 

Seeta  loves  her  home,  but  before  a  month  is  over  its 
close  confinement  palls  and  she  writes  back,  "I  am  liv- 
ing like  a  Muhammadan  woman.  I  wish  it  were  the 
last  day  of  vacation."  Her  father  is  shocked  by  her 
desire  to  be  up  and  doing.  He  calls  on  the  school  prin- 
cipal and  complains,  "I  don't  know  what  to  make  of 
my  daughter.  Why  is  she  not  like  her  mother?  Are 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  41 

not  cooking  and  sewing  enough  for  any  woman  ?  Why 
has  she  these  strange  ideas  about  doing  all  sorts  of 
things  that  her  mother  never  wanted  to  do  ?"  Then  the 
principal  tries  to  explain  patiently  that  new  wine  can- 
not be  kept  in  old  bottles,  and  that  unless  the  daughter 
were  to  be  different  from  the  mother  it  was  hardly 
worth  while  to  send  her  for  secondary  education.  So, 
when  the  long  holiday  is  over,  Seeta  returns  with  a 
fresh  appreciation  of  what  education  means  in  her 
life ;  and  we  know  that  when  her  daughters  come  home 
for  vacation,  it  will  be  to  a  mother  with  sympathy  and 
understanding. 

The  girls'  loyalty  to  their  school  is  at  times  almost 
pathetic.  An  American  teacher  writes,  "One  moon- 
light night  when  I  was  walking  about  the  grounds 
talking  with  some  of  the  oldest  girls,  one  of  them 
caught  my  hand,  and  turned  me  about  toward  the 
school,  which,  even  under  the  magic  of  the  Indian 
moon,  did  not  seem  a  particularly  beautiful  sight  to  me. 
'Amma'  (mother),  she  said,  in  a  voice  quivering  with 
emotion,  'See  how  beautiful  our  school  is!  When  I 
stand  out  here  at  night  and  look  at  it  through  the  trees, 
it  gives  me  such  a  feeling  here,'  and  she  pressed  her 
hand  over  her  heart. 

"  'Do  you  think  it  is  only  beautiful  at  night  ?'  one  of 
the  other  girls  asked  indignantly,  and  all  joined  in  en- 
thusiastic affirmations  of  its  attractions  even  at  high 
noon, — which  all  goes  to  show  how  relative  the  matter 
is.  I,  with  my  background  of  Wellesley  lawns  and 
architecture,  find  our  school  a  hopelessly  unsanitary 


42  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

makeshift  to  be  endured  patiently  for  a  few  years 
longer,  but  to  these  girls  with  their  background  of 
wretchedly  poor  village  homes  it  is  in  its  bare  clean- 
liness, as  well  as  in  its  associations,  a  veritable  place  of 
'sweetness  and  light.' " 

Athletics.  Organized  play  is  one  of  the  gifts 

that  school  life  brings  to  India.  It,  too,  has  to  be 
learned,  for  the  Indian  girl  has  had  no  home  training 
in  initiative.  The  family  or  the  caste  is  the  unit  and 
she  is  a  passive  member  of  the  group,  whose  supreme 
duty  is  implicit  obedience.  One  Friday  when  school 
had  just  reopened  after  the  Christmas  vacation,  one  of 
the  teachers  came  to  the  principal  and  said,  "May  we 
stop  all  classes  this  afternoon  and  let  the  children  play  ? 
You  see,"  as  she  saw  remonstrance  forthcoming,  "it's 
just  because  it's  been  vacation.  They  say  they  have 
been  so  long  at  home  and. there  has  been  no  chance  to 
play."  Classes  were  stopped,  and  all  the  school  played, 
from  the  greatest  unto  the  least,  until  the  newly 
aroused  instinct  was  satisfied. 

Basket  ball  had  an  interesting  history  in  one  school. 
At  first  the  players  were  very  weak  sisters,  indeed.  The 
center  who  was  knocked  down  wept  as  at  a  personal 
affront,  and  the  defeated  team  also  wept  to  prove  their 
penitence  for  their  defeat.  But  gradually  the  team 
learned  to  play  fair,  to  take  hard  knocks,  and  to  cheer 
the  winners.  They  grew  into  such  "good  sports"  that 
when  one  day  an  invading  cow,  aggrieved  at  being  hit 
in  the  flank  by  a  flying  ball,  turned  and  knocked  the 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  43 

goal  thrower  flat  on  the  ground,  the  interruption  lasted 
only  a  few  minutes.  The  prostrate  goal-thrower  re- 
covered her  breath,  got  over  her  fright,  and,  while 
admiring  friends  chased  the  cow  to  a  safe  distance,  the 
game  went  on  to  the  finish. 

Dramatics.  The  dramatic  instinct  is  strong  and 

the  school  girl  actress  shines,  whether  in  the  role  of 
Ophelia  or  Ramayanti.  In  India  among  Hindus  or 
Christians,  in  school  or  church  or  village,  musical 
dramas  are  frequently  composed  and  played  and  hold 
unwearied  audiences  far  into  the  night.  Among  Chris- 
tians there  is  a  great  fondness  for  dramatizing  Bible 
narratives.  Joseph,  Daniel,  and  the  Prodigal  Son  ap- 
pear in  wonderful  Indian  settings,  "adapted"  some- 
times almost  beyond  recognition.  They  show  inter- 
esting likeness  to  the  miracle  and  mystery  plays  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  There  is  the  same  naive  presentation; 
the  same  introduction  of  the  buffoon  to  offset  tragedy 
with  comedy ;  the  same  tendency  to  overemphasize  the 
comic  parts  until  all  sense  of  reverence  is  lost.  In 
some  respects  India  and  Mediaeval  Europe  are  not  so 
far  apart. 

A  high  school  class  one  night  presented  part  of  the 
old  Tamil  drama  of  Harischandra.  The  heroine,  an 
exiled  queen,  watches  her  child  die  before  her  in  the 
forest.  Having  no  money  to  pay  for  cremation  on  the 
burning  ghat,  she  herself  gathers  firewood,  builds  a 
little  pyre,  and  with  such  tears  and  lamentations  as 
befit  an  Oriental  woman  lays  her  child's  body  on  the 


44  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

funeral  pile.  Just  as  the  fire  is  lighted  and  the  corpse 
begins  to  burn,  the  keeper  of  the  burning  ghat  appears 
and,  with  anger  at  this  trespass,  kicks  over  the  pyre, 
puts  the  fire  out,  and  throws  the  body  aside.  Just  at 
this  moment  Chandramathy  sees  in  him  the  exiled  king, 
her  husband  and  lord,  and  the  father  of  her  dead  child. 
There  are  tearful  recognitions;  together  they  gather 
again  the  scattered  firewood,  rebuild  the  pyre,  and 
share  their  common  grief. 

The  play  was  given  in  a  dimly  lighted  court,  with 
simple  costumes  and  the  crudest  stage  properties.  But 
one  spectator  will  not  soon  forget  the  schoolgirl  hero- 
ine whose  masses  of  black  hair  swept  to  her  knees.  She 
lived  again  all  the  pathos,  the  anger  and  despair  and 
reconciliation  of  the  old  tale,  and  her  audience  thrilled 
with  her  as  at  the  touch  of  a  tragedy  queen. 

Student  Co-operation    in   school   government 

Government  and  discipline  is  one  of  the  most  edu- 
cational experiences  that  an  Indian  girl  can  pass 
through.  To  feel  the  responsibility  for  her  own  ac- 
tions and  those  of  her  schoolmates,  to  form  impersonal 
judgments  that  have  no  relation  to  one's  likes  and  dis- 
likes, these  are  lessons  found  not  between  the  covers 
of  text-books,  but  at  the  very  heart  of  life-experience. 
Under  such  moral  strain  and  stress  character  de- 
velops, not  as  a  hothouse  growth  of  unreal  dreams  and 
theories,  but  as  the  sturdy  product  of  life  situations. 

Some  schools  divide  themselves  into  groups,  each  of 
which  elects  a  "queen"  to  represent  and  to  rule.  The 


PRIESTS  OF  THE  HINDU  TEMPLE 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  45 

queens  with  elected  teachers  and  the  principal  form 
the  governing  body,  before  which  all  questions  of  disci- 
pline come  for  settlement.  Great  is  the  office  of  a 
queen.  She  is  usually  well  beloved,  but  also  at  times 
well  hated,  for  the  "Court"  occasionally  dispenses 
punishments  far  heavier  than  the  teachers  alone  would 
dare  to  inflict  and  its  members  often  realize  the  truth 
of  Shakespeare's  statement,  "Uneasy  lies  the  head  that 
wears  a  crown." 

The  "Court"  is  now  in  session  and  has  two  culprits 
before  its  bar.  Abundance  has  been  found  to  have  a 
cake  of  soap  and  a  mirror,  not  her  own,  shut  up  in  her 
box.  Lotus  copied  her  best  friend's  composition  and 
handed  it  in  as  hers.  What  shall  be  done  to  the  two  ? 
Discussion  waxes  hot.  The  play  hour  passes.  Shouts 
and  laughter  come  in  from  the  tennis  court  and  the 
basket  ball  field.  Every  one  is  having  a  good  time  save 
the  culprits  and  the  four  queens,  who  pay  the  penalty 
of  greatness  and  bear  on  their  young  shoulders  the 
burdens  of  the  world.  Evidence  is  hard  to  collect,  for 
the  witnesses  disagree  among  themselves.  Then  there 
are  other  complications.  Abundance  stole  things 
which  you  can  see  and  touch,  while  Lotus's  theft  was 
only  one  of  intangible  thoughts.  Furthermore,  Abun- 
dance comes  from  a  no-account  family,  quite  "down 
and  out,"  while  Lotus  is  a  pastor's  daughter  and  as 
such  entitled  to  due  respect  and  deference.  And  still 
further,  nobody  likes  Abundance,  while  Lotus  is  very 
popular  and  counts  one  of  the  queens  as  her  intimate 
friend.  Much  time  passes,  the  supper  bell  rings,  and 


46  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

the  players  troop  noisily  indoors,  but  the  four  bur- 
dened queens  still  struggle  with  their  dawning  sense 
of  justice.  At  last,  as  the  swift  darkness  drops,  the 
case  is  closed  and  judgment  pronounced.  Much  time 
has  been  consumed,  but  four  girls  have  learned  a  few 
of  life's  big  lessons,  not  found  in  books,  such  as :  that 
thoughts  are  just  as  real  as  things ;  that  likes  and  dis- 
likes have  nothing  to  do  with  matters  of  discipline; 
that  a  girl  of  a  "way  up"  family  should  have  more  ex- 
pected of  her  than  one  who  is  "down  and  out."  Per- 
haps that  experience  will  count  more  than  any 
"original"  in  geometry. 

Student  Government  also  brings  about  a  wonderful 
comradeship  between  teachers  and  pupils.  Out  of  it 
has  grown  such  a  sense  of  friendly  freedom  as  found 
expression  in  this  letter  written  to  its  American  teacher 
by  a  Junior  Class  who  were  more  familiar  with  the 
meter  of  Evangeline  than  with  the  geometry  lesson 
assigned. 

Dear  Miss : 

We  are  the  Math,  students  who  made  you  lose  youf 
temper  this  morning,  and  we  feel  very  sorry  for  that. 
We  found  that  we  are  the  girls  who  must  be  blamed. 
We  ought  to  have  told  you  the  matter  beforehand,  but 
we  didn't,  so  please  excuse  us  for  the  fault  which  we 
committed  and  we  realize  now.  Our  love  to  you. 

V  Form  Math.  Girls. 

P.  S.  We  would  like  to  quote  a  poem  which  we  are 
very  much  interested  in  telling  you : 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  47 

"What  is  that  that  ye  do,  my  children  ? 
What  madness  has  seized  you  this  morning  ? 
Seven  days  have  I  labored  among  you, 
Not  in  word  alone,  but  showing  the  figures  on  the 

board. 

Have  you  so  soon  forgotten  all  the  definitions  of  Loci? 
Is  this  the  fruit  of  my  teaching  and  laboring?" 

Co-operative  Co-operation  is  needed  not  only  in 
Housekeeping.  "being  good,"  but  also  in  eating  and 
drinking  and  keeping  clean.  There  are  school  families 
in  India  where  every  member  from  the  "queen"  to  the 
most  rollicking  five-year-old  has  her  share  in  making 
things  go.  The  queen  takes  her  turn  in  getting  up  at 
dawn  to  see  that  the  "water  set"  is  at  the  well  on  time ; 
five-year-old  Tara  wields  her  diminutive  broom  in  her 
own  small  corner,  and  each  is  proud  of  her  share. 
There  is  in  Indian  life  an  unfortunate  feud  between 
the  head  and  the  hand.  To  be  "educated"  means  to  be 
lifted  above  the  degradation  of  manual  labor ;  to  work 
with  one's  hands  means  something  lacking  in  one's 
brain.  Not  seldom  does  a  schoolboy  go  home  to  his 
village  and  sit  idle  while  his  father  reaps  the  rice  crop. 
Not  seldom  does  an  "educated"  girl  spend  her  vaca- 
tion in  letter  writing  and  crochet  work  while  her  "un- 
educated" mother  toils  over  the  family  cooking. 

Girls,  however,  who  have  spent  hours  over  the  the- 
ories of  food  values,  balanced  meals,  and  the  nutri- 
tion of  children,  and  other  hours  over  the  practical 
working  out  of  the  theories  in  the  big  school  family,  go 


48  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

home  with  a  changed  attitude  toward  the  work  of  the 
house.  Siromony  writes  back  at  Christmas  time, 
"The  first  thing  I  did  after  reaching  home  was  to 
empty  out  the  house  and  whitewash  it." 

Ruth's  letter  in  the  summer  vacation  ends,  "We  have 
given  our  mother  a  month's  holiday.  All  she  needs  to 
do  is  to  go  to  the  bazaar  and  buy  supplies.  My  sister 
and  I  will  do  all  the  rest." 

On  Christmas  day,  Miracle,  who  is  spending  her 
vacation  at  school,  all  on  her  own  initiative  gets  up  at 
three  in  the  morning  to  kill  chickens  and  start  the  curry 
for  the  orphans'  dinner,  so  that  the  work  may  be  well 
out  of  the  way  before  time  for  the  Christmas  tree  and 
church. 

Golden  Jewel  begs  the  use  of  the  sewing  machine  in 
the  Mission  bungalow.  All  the  days  before  Christmas 
her  bare  feet  on  the  treadle  keep  the  wheels  whirring. 
Morning  and  afternoon  she  is  at  it,  for  Jewel  has  a 
quiver  full  of  little  brothers  and  sisters,  and  in  India 
no  one  can  go  to  church  on  Christmas  without  a  new 
and  holiday-colored  garment.  One  after  another  they 
come  from  Jewel's  deft  fingers  and  lie  on  the  floor  in 
a  rainbow  heap.  When  Christmas  Eve  comes  all  are 
finished — except  her  own.  On  Christmas  morning  all 
the  family  are  in  church  at  that  early  service  dearest  to 
the  Indian  Christian,  with  its  decorations  of  palm  and 
asparagus  creeper,  its  carols  and  rejoicings  and  new 
and  shining  raiment.  In  the  midst  sits  Jewel  and  her 
clothes  to  the  most  seem  shabby,  but  to  those  who 
know  she  is  the  best  dressed  girl  in  the  whole  church, 


Tamil  Girls  Preparing  for  College 


The  Village  of  the  Seven  Palms 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  49 

for  she  is  wearing  a  new  spiritual  garment  of  unselfish 
service. 

The  Indian  Girl's  To  the  Indian  schoolgirl  religion  is  the 
Religion.  natural  atmosphere  of  life.  She  dis- 

cusses her  faith  with  as  little  self-consciousness  as  if 
she  were  choosing  the  ingredients  for  the  next  day's 
curry.  She  knows  nothing  of  those  Western  conven- 
tions that  make  it  "good  form"  for  us  to  hide  all  our 
emotions,  all  our  depth  of  feeling,  under  the  mask  of 
not  caring  at  all.  She  has  none  of  that  inverted  hypoc- 
risy which  causes  us  to  take  infinite  pains  to  assure  our 
world  that  we  are  vastly  worse  than  we  are.  What 
Lotus  feels  she  expresses  simply,  naturally,  be  it  her 
interest  in  biology,  her  friendship  for  you,  or  her  re- 
sponse to  the  love  of  the  All-Father.  .  And  that  re- 
sponse is  deep  and  genuine.  There  is  a  spiritual  qual- 
ity, an  answering  vibration,  which  one  seldom  finds 
outside  the  Orient.  You  lead  morning  prayers  and 
to  pray  is  easy,  because  in  those  schoolgirl  worshippers 
you  feel  the  mystic  quality  of  the  East  leaping  up  in 
response.  You  teach  a  Bible  class  and  the  girls'  eager 
questions  run  ahead  so  fast  that  you  lose  your  breath 
as  you  try  to  keep  pace. 

The  following  letter  was  written  by  a  girl  just  after 
her  first  experience  of  a  mountain  climb  with  a  vaca- 
tion camp  at  the  top.  "Now  we  are  on  Kylasa,  enjoy- 
ing our  'mountain  top  experience.'  This  morning 

Miss gave  a  beautiful  and  inspiring  talk  on  visions. 

She  showed  us  that  the  climbing  up  Kylasa  could  be  a 


50  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

parable  of  our  journey  through  this  world.  In  places 
where  it  was  steep  and  where  we  were  tired,  the  curi- 
osity we  had  to  see  the  full  vision  on  the  top  kept  us 
courageous  to  go  forward  and  not  sit  long  in  any  place. 
She  compared  this  with  our  difficulties  and  dark  times 
and  this  impressed  me  most,  I  think. 

"When  we  came  up  it  was  dark  and  I  was  supposed 
to  come  in  the  chair,  but  I  did  not  wait  for  it,  because 
I  was  very  curious  to  go  up.  When  I  came  to  a  place 
very  dark,  with  bushes  and  trees  very  thick  on  both 
sides,  I  had  to  give  up  and  wait  until  the  others  came. 
When  I  was  waiting  I  saw  the  big,  almost  red  moon 
coming,  stealing  its  way  through  the  dark  clouds  little 
by  little.  It  was  really  glorious.  I  thought  of  this 

when  Miss talked  to  us,  and  it  made  it  easier  to 

understand  her  feeling  about  that. 

"So  much  of  that,  and  now  I  want  to  tell  you  about 
the  steep  rocks  I  am  climbing  these  days,"  and  then 
follows  the  application  to  the  big  "Hill  Difficulty"  that 
was  blocking  up  her  own  life  path. 

God  in  Nature.  Love  of  nature  is  not  as  spontaneous 
in  the  Indian  girl  as  in  the  Japanese.  Yet  with  but  a 
little  training  of  the  seeing  eye  and  understanding 
heart,  there  develops  a  deep  love  of  beauty  that  in- 
cludes alike  flowers  and  birds,  sunsets  and  stars.  A 
High  School  senior  thus  expressed  her  thoughts  about 
it  at  the  final  Y.  W.  C.  A.  meeting  of  the  year. 

"Nature  stands  before  our  eyes  to  make  us  feel 
God's  presence.  I  feel  God's  presence  very  close  when 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  51 

I  happen  to  see  the  glorious  sunset  and  bright  moon- 
light night  when  everybody  around  me  is  sleeping.  I 
think  Nature  gives  a  much  greater  and  more  glorious 
impression  about  God  than  any  sermon. 

"Whenever  I  felt  troubled  or  worried,  I  did  not 
often  read  the  Bible  or  prayer  book,  but  I  wanted  to 
go  alone  to  some  quiet  place  from  where  I  could  see 
the  broad,  bright  blue  sky  with  all  its  mysteries  and 
green  trees  and  gray  mountains  with  fields  and  forests 
around  them. 

"I  think  Nature  is  the  best  comforter  and  preacher 
of  God.  When  we  are  too  tired  to  learn  our  lessons 
or  to  do  our  duty,  we  can  go  alone  for  a  safe  distance 
where  God  waits  for  us  to  strengthen  us.  It  is  hard 
for  me  to  sit  and  think  about  God  in  the  class  room, 
where  everybody  is  speaking,  and  the  class  books  and 
sums  on  the  board  attract  my  attention,  or  make  me 
feel  useless  because  I  was  not  able  to  do  them  as 
nicely  as  others  in  my  class.  But,  if  we  go  away  from 
all  these,  our  friend  Nature  jumps  up  and  greets  us 
with  new  greetings.  The  cool  wind  and  the  pretty 
birds  and  wonderful  little  flowers  and  giant-like  rocks 
help  us  to  feel  the  presence  of  God.  We  cannot  appre- 
ciate all  these  when  we  are  walking  with  the  crowd 
and  talking  and  playing,  but,  if  we  are  left  alone  when 
we  go  out  to  see  God,  then  even  the  stones  and  tiny 
flowers  which  we  often  see  look  like  a  mystery  to  us. 
In  thinking  about  them  we  can  feel  the  wisdom  of 
God." 

Crude  as  the  English  may  be,  the  spiritual  percep- 


52  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

tion  is  not  so  different  from  that  of  the  English  lad 
who  cried, 

"My  heart  leaps  up  when  I  behold 
A  rainbow  in  the  sky." 

Religion  made  Religious  feeling  and  expression  may 
Practical.  be  natural  to  the  Indian  mind,  but 

how  about  its  transfer  to  the  affairs  of  the  common 
day?  It  is  a  hard  enough  proposition  for  any  of  us, 
be  we  from  the  East  or  the  West;  to  make  the  diffi- 
culty even  greater,  the  Indian  girl  is  heir  to  a  religious 
system  in  which  religion  and  morals  may  be  kept  in 
water-tight  compartments.  Where  the  temples  shelter 
"protected"  prostitution  and  the  wandering  "holy 
man"  may  break  all  the  Ten  Commandments  with  im- 
punity, it  is  hard  to  learn  that  the  worship  of  God 
means  right  living.  Harder  than  irregular  verbs  or 
English  idioms  is  the  fundamental  lesson  that  the 
Bible  class  on  Sunday  has  a  vital  connection  with  hon- 
est work  in  arithmetic  on  Monday,  the  settling  of  a 
quarrel  on  Tuesday,  and  the  thorough  sweeping  of  the 
schoolroom  on  Wednesday.  Right  here  it  is  that  we 
see  "the  grace  of  God"  at  work  in  the  hearts  of  big 
girls  and  middle-sized  girls  and  little  children  from  the 
villages.  When  classes  can  be  left  to  take  examina- 
tions unsupervised,  a  big  step  forward  is  marked. 
When  before  Communion  Sunday  the  "queens"  of 
their  own  initiative  settle  up  the  school  quarrels  and 
"make  peace,"  one  has  the  glad  feeling  that  a  little  bit 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  53 

of  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  come  in  one  small  corner 
of  the  earth. 

"Among  you  as  Religious  emotion  may  find  one  of  its 
He  that  serveth."  normal  outlets  in  personal  right-liv- 
ing. That  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  yet  not  enough. 
It  must  seek  expression  also  in  making  life  better  for 
other  people.  The  Indian  schoolgirl  lives  in  the  midst 
of  a  vast  social  laboratory,  surrounded  by  problems 
that  are  overwhelmingly  intricate.  What  is  her  educa- 
tion worth?  Nothing,  if  it  leads  to  a  cloistered  se- 
clusion; everything,  if  it  brings  her  into  vital  healing 
touch  with  even  one  of  its  needs. 

The  spirit  of  Christian  social  service  opens  many 
doors.  There  are  Sunday  afternoons  to  be  spent  with 
the  shy  pupils  of  the  High  Caste  Girls'  Schools  at  the 
opposite  end  of  town.  In  the  outcaste  village  beside 
the  rice  fields  we  may  find  the  other  end  of  the  social 
scale — twenty  or  thirty  little  barbarians  whose  open- 
ing exercises  must  start  off  with  a  compulsory  bath  at 
the  well. 

Vacation  weeks  at  home  are  bristling  with  oppor- 
tunity— the  woman  next  door  whose  forgotten  art  of 
reading  may  be  revived;  the  bride  in  the  next  street 
who  longs  to  learn  crochet  work;  the  little  troop  of 
neighbor  children  who  crowd  the  house  to  learn  the 
haunting  strains  of  a  Christian  lyric.  A  cholera  epi- 
demic breaks  out,  and,  instead  of  blind  fear  of  a 
demon-goddess  to  be  placated,  there  is  practical  knowl- 
edge as  to  methods  of  guarding  food  and  drinking 


54  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

water.  The  baby  of  the  house  is  ill  and,  instead  of 
exorcisms  and  branding  with  hot  irons,  there  is  a 
visit  to  the  nearest  hospital  and  enough  knowledge  of 
hygienic  laws  to  follow  out  the  doctor's  directions. 

Rebecca  teaches  a  class  of  small  boys  in  the  outcaste 
Sunday  school  that  gives  preliminary  baths.  On  this 
particular  Sunday,  however,  she  starts  out  armed  not 
with  the  picture  roll  and  lyric  book,  but  with  a  motley 
collection  of  soap  and  clean  rags,  cotton  swabs  and 
iodine  and  ointment. 

"Amma,"  says  Rebecca,  "in  the  little  thatched  house, 
the  fourth  beyond  the  school,  I  saw  a  boy  whose  head  is 
covered  with  sores.  May  Zipporah  teach  my  class  to- 
day, while  I  go  and  treat  the  sores,  as  I  have  learned  to 
do  in  school?"  So  Rebecca,  following  in  the  steps  of 
Him  who  sent  out  His  disciples  not  only  to  preach 
but  also  to  heal,  attacks  one  of  the  little  strongholds  of 
dirt  and  disease  and  carries  it  by  storm.  No  young 
surgeon  after  his  first  successful  major  operation  was 
ever  prouder  than  Rebecca  when  the  next  Sunday  eve- 
ning she  rushes  into  the  bungalow,  eyes  shining,  to 
report  her  cure  complete. 

Is  there  somewhere  an  American  girl  who  longs 
to  "do  things"?  A  little  plumbing — or  its  equivalent 
in  a  land  where  no  plumbing  is ;  a  little  bossing  of  the 
carpenter,  the  mason,  the  builder ;  a  great  deal  of  "high 
finance"  in  raising  one  dollar  to  the  purchasing  power 
of  two ;  a  deal  of  administration  with  need  for  endless 
tact;  the  teaching  of  subjects  known  and  unknown, — 
largely  the  latter;  a  vast  amount  of  mothering  and  a 


A  HIGH  SCHOOL  55 

proportionate  return  in  the  love  of  children;  days 
bristling  with  problems,  and  nights  when  one  sinks  into 
bed  too  tired  to  think  or  feel — there  you  have  it,  with 
much  more.  More  because  it  means  opportunity  for 
creative  work — creative  as  one  helps  to  mould  the  new 
education  of  new  India;  creative  as  one  reverently 
helps  to  fashion  some  of  the  lives  that  are  to  be  new 
India  itself.  More  too,  as  the  rebound  comes  back  to 
one's  self  in  a  life  too  full  for  loneliness,  too  obsessing 
for  self-interest.  Does  it  pay  ?  Try  it  for  yourself  and 
see. 


The  Beginnings  of  Isabella  Thoburn  College 

One  bright  noon  in  North  India,  sixty  years  ago,  a  young 
missionary  on  an  evangelistic  tour  among  the  villages  paused 
to  rest  by  the  wayside.  As  he  paced  up  and  down  beneath  the 
tamarind  trees,  pondering  the  problem  of  India's  womanhood, 
shut  in  the  zenanas  beyond  the  reach  of  the  Gospel  which  he 
was  bringing  to  the  little  villages,  there  fell  at  his  feet  a 
feather  from  a  vulture's  wing.  Picking  it  up,  he  whimsically 
cut  it  into  a  quill.  Thinking  that  his  sister  in  far-away 
America  might  like  a  letter  from  so  strange  a  pen,  he  went 
into  his  tent  and  wrote  to  her.  He  told  her  of  the  millions 
of  girls  shut  up  in  those  "citadels  of  heathenism,"  the  zenanas 
of  India, — a  problem  which  only  Christian  women  might  hope 
to  solve.  Half  playfully,  half  in  earnest,  he  added,  "Why 
don't  you  come  out  and  help?"  As  swift  as  wind  and  wave 
permitted  was  Isabella  Thoburn's  answer,  "I  am  coming  as 
soon  as  the  way  opens !" 

Already  a  group  of  women,  stirred  to  the  depths  by  the 
words  of  Mrs.  Edwin  W.  Parker  and  Mrs.  William  Butler, 
returned  missionaries  from  India,  were  forming  a  Society  to 
help  the  women  and  girls  of  Christless  lands.  At  the  first 
public  meeting  of  this  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  though  but  twenty  women 
were  present  with  but  three  hundred  dollars  in  the  treasury, 
when  they  learned  that  Isabella  Thoburn, — gifted,  consecrated, 
wise, — was  ready  to  go  to  India,  they  exclaimed.  "Shall  we  lose 
Miss  Thoburn  because  we  have  not  the  needea  money  in  our 
hands  to  send  her?  No,  rather  let  us  walk  the  streets  of 
Boston  in  our  calico  dresses,  and  save  the  expense  of  more 
costly  apparel !"  Thus  was  answered  the  letter  written  with 
the  feather  from  the  vulture's  wing  by  the  wayside  in  India. 

In  1870,  Isabella  Thoburn  gathered  six  little  waifs  into  her 
first  school  in  India,  a  one-roomed  building  in  the  noisy,  dusty 
bazaar  of  Lucknow.  From  this  brave  venture  have  grown 
the  Middle  School,  the  High  School,  and  finally  in  1886  the 
first  woman's  Christian  College  in  all  Asia,  housed  in  the 
Ruby  Garden,  Lai  Bagh.  Here  for  thirty-one  years  Isabella 
Thoburn  lived  and  loved  and  labored  for  the  girls  of  India, 


56 


CHAPTER  THREE 
I.  THE  GARDEN  OF  HID  TREASURE 

Prelude:  Why  go  "Why  should  an  Indian  girl  want  a 
to  College?  college  education?"  queried  Mary 

Smith,  as  she  listened  to  her  roommate's  account  of  the 
"Lighting  of  the  Christmas  Candles."  "I  can  see  why 
she  would  need  to  learn  to  read  and  write,  and  even 
a  high  school  course  I  wouldn't  mind ;  but  college  seems 
to  me  perfectly  silly,  and  an  awful  waste  of  good 
money.  Why,  from  our  own  home  high  school  there 
are  only  six  of  us  at  college." 

Mary  Smith,  fresh  from  "Main  Street,"  may  be  less 
provincial  than  she  sounds.  Her  question  puts  up  a 
real  problem.  When  only  one  girl  in  one  hundred  has  a 
chance  at  the  Three  R's,  is  it  right  to  "waste  money"  on 
giving  certain  others  the  chance  to  delve  into  psychol- 
ogy and  higher  mathematics  ?  When  there  is  not  bread 
enough  to  go  around,  why  should  some  of  the  family 
have  cake  and  pudding  ? 

Something  less  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  similar 
questions  were  vexing  the  American  public.  Those 
were  the  days  when  Mary  Lyon  fought  her  winning 
battle  against  the  champions  of  the  slogan  "The  home 
is  woman's  sphere,"  the  days  in  which  the  pioneers  of 
women's  education  foregathered  from  the  rocky  farm- 
slopes  of  New  England,  and  Mt.  Holyoke  came  into 
being.  Mary  Smith,  who  is  duly  born,  baptized,  vac- 

57 


58  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

cinated,  and  registered  for  Vassar,  the  last  requiring 
no  more  volition  on  her  part  than  the  first,  realizes  little 
of  the  ancient  struggle  that  has  made  her  privilege  a 
matter  of  course. 

They  are  much  the  same  old  arguments  that  must  be 
gone  over  again  to  justify  college  education  for  our 
sisters  of  the  East.  Rather  say  argument,  in  the 
singular,  for  there  is  just  one  that  holds,  and  that  is 
the  possibilities  for  service  that  such  education  opens 
up. 

High  schools  there  must  be  in  India,  but  who  will 
teach  them  ?  American  and  English  women  have  never 
yet  gone  out  to  India  in  such  numbers  as  to  staff  the 
schools  they  have  founded,  nor  would  there  be  funds 
to  support  them  if  they  did.  Travel  through  India 
to-day  and  you  will  find  girls'  schools  staffed  either 
with  under-qualified  women  teachers,  or  else  with  men 
whose  academic  qualifications  are  satisfactory,  but 
who,  being  men,  cannot  fill  the  place  where  a  woman 
is  obviously  needed.  What  could  be  more  contradic- 
tory than  to  find  a  Christian  girls'  school,  supported 
largely  by  American  money,  but  staffed  by  Hindu  men, 
just  because  no  Christian  women  with  necessary  quali- 
fications are  available? 

Hospitals  there  must  be,  but  where  are  the  doctors  to 
conduct  them  ?  Here  again,  foreign  doctors  can  fill  the 
need  of  the  merest  fraction  of  India's  suffering  wom- 
ankind. But  the  American  doctor  can  multiply  herself 
in  just  one  way.  Give  her  a  Medical  College,  well 
equipped  and  staffed,  and  a  body  of  Indian  girls  with  a 


THE  GARDEN  OF  HID  TREASURE  59 

sufficient  background  of  general  education,  and  instead 
of  one  doctor  and  one  hospital  you  will  find  countless 
centres  of  healing  springing  up  in  city  and  small  town 
and  along  the  roadside  where  the  doctor  passes  by. 

Leadership  there  must  be  among  the  women  of  the 
New  India.  Where  will  it  be  found  but  among  those 
women  whose  powers  of  initiative  have  been  developed 
by  the  four  years  of  life  in  a  Christian  college  ?  Church 
workers,  pastors'  wives,  social  workers,  child  welfare 
promoters,  where  can  you  find  them  in  India?  Here 
and  there,  scattered  in  unlikely  places,  where  educated 
women,  married  and  home-making,  yet  let  their  surplus 
energy  flow  out  into  neighborhood  betterment. 

Mothers  of  families  there  must  be,  and  far  be  it 
from  me  to  say  that  non-college  women  fail  in  that 
high  office.  There  comes  before  me  one  mother  of 
fourteen  children  who  has  never  seen  the  inside  of  a 
college  classroom,  yet  whom  it  would  be  hard  to  excel 
in  her  qualities  of  motherliness.  But,  other  things 
being  equal,  it  is  to  the  Christian,  educated  mothers 
that  we  turn  to  find  the  life  of  the  ideal  home,  with 
real  comradeship  between  wife  and  husband,  with  in- 
telligent understanding  of  the  children,  and  the  covet- 
ing for  them  of  the  best  that  education  can  give. 

One  other  question  Mary  Smith  may  rightly  ask. 
What  about  the  men's  colleges  already  existing  ?  Will 
co-education  not  work  in  India  ? 

To  a  certain  limited  extent  it  has.  Rukkubai,  with 
her  too  brief  years  of  freedom,  proved  its  possibility. 
Others  there  have  been,  pioneer  souls,  who  pushed  their 


60  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

way  into  lecture  halls  crowded  with  men,  took  notes 
in  the  dark  and  undesirable  remnants  of  space  allotted 
to  them,  and  by  dint  of  perseverance  and  hard  work 
passed  the  examinations  of  the  University  and  carried 
off  the  coveted  degree. 

They  were  courageous  women,  deserving  admira- 
tion. They  won  knowledge,  sometimes  at  heavy  cost  of 
health  and  nerve  power.  They  helped  to  make  wom- 
en's education  possible.  But  what  of  the  fairer  side  of 
college  life  could  they  ever  know  ?  They  were  accepted 
always  on  sufferance;  they  never  "belonged."  One 
such  pioneer  was  a  friend  of  mine.  In  many  walks  and 
talks  she  told  me  of  life  in  a  men's  college  under  the 
patronage  of  the  Maharajah  of  a  native  state.  Loyal 
to  her  college,  and  proud  of  the  treasures  of  oppor- 
tunity it  had  opened  to  her,  she  yet  sighed  for  what  she 
had  missed.  "When  I  see  the  life  of  the  girls  in  the 
Women's  Christian  College  at  Madras,"  she  said,  "I 
feel  that  I  have  never  been  to  college." 

Three  times  the  girls  and  women  of  America  have 
reached  out  hands  across  the  sea  and  either  founded  or 
helped  to  found  Christian  schools  of  higher  education 
for  the  women  of  India,  with  the  belief  that  they  have 
a  right  to  the  knowledge  of  the  spiritual  truth  which 
has  brought  to  Christian  women  of  America  develop- 
ment in  righteousness,  freedom  of  faith,  a  personal 
knowledge  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
blessed  hope  of  immortality. 

Isabella  Thoburn  College,  Lucknow,  1886. 
The  Women's  Christian  College,  Madras,  1915. 


«•  - 


THE  GARDEN  OF  HID  TREASURE  61 

The  Vellore  Medical  School,  1918. 
These  three  names  and  dates  are  red-lettered  in  the 
history  of  international  friendship,  for  through  them 
the  college  women  of  America  and  India  are  joined  into 
one  fellowship  of  knowledge  and  service. 

II.  LUCKNOW 

Lai  Bagh.  A  dusty  journey  of  a  night  and  almost 

a  day  brings  you  from  Calcutta  across  the  limitless 
Ganges  plains  to  Lucknow,  capital  of  the  ancient  king- 
dom of  Oudh.  Every  tourist  visits  it,  making  a  pious 
pilgrimage  first  to  the  Residency,  where  in  the  midst  of 
green  lawns  and  banyan  trees  the  scarred  ruins  tell  of 
the  unforgettable  Mutiny  days  of  '57;  and  then  to  the 
nearby  cemetery,  where  the  dead  sleep  among  the  jas- 
mines. Then,  if  his  hours  are  wisely  chosen,  the  trav- 
eler drives  back  to  the  town  at  sunset  when  palace 
towers  and  cupolas,  mosque  minarets  and  domes  are 
silhouetted  against  the  blazing  west  in  an  unrivalled 
skyline. 

The  tourist  returns  to  the  bazaars  and  in  the  midst 
of  them,  amid  the  dust  and  clatter  of  ekkas  and  tongas, 
probably  passes  by  a  sight  more  interesting  than  Resi- 
dency ruins  and  abandoned  palaces — inasmuch  as  it 
deals  with  the  living  present  rather  than  the  dead  past. 

It  was  in  Lai  Bagh,  the  Ruby  Garden  of  hid  treasure, 
that  the  Nawab  Iq  bal-ud-dowler,  Lord  Chamberlain 
to  the  first  king  of  Oudh,  hid,  according  to  report,  great 
caskets  of  silver  rupees,  with  a  huge  ruby  possessed  of 


62  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

magic  virtues,  and  left  behind  him  a  sheet  of  detailed 
directions  for  finding  the  treasure,  with,  alas,  a  post- 
script to  explain  that  all  the  careful  directions  were 
quite  wrong,  being  intended  to  mislead  the  would-be 
discoverer.  It  was  again  in  Lai  Bagh  that  Isabella 
Thoburn  founded  her  school  for  Indian  girls,  and  in 
1886  opened  the  classes  of  the  first  women's  college 
for  India  to  possess  residence  accommodation  and  a 
staff  of  women  teachers.  The  buried  rupees  and  the 
magic  ruby  have  never  been  unearthed ;  instead  these 
years  of  Lai  Bagh  history  have  witnessed  the  discovery 
of  richer  treasure  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  young 
women,  set  free  from  age-long  repressions  and  sent 
out  to  share  their  riches  with  a  world  in  need. 

You  enter  Lai  Bagh's  gates  and  find  yourself  before 
a  stretch  of  dull  red  buildings  whose  wide-arched  ve- 
randahs are  built  to  keep  out  the  fierce  suns  of  May. 
In  November  the  sun  has  lost  its  terrors,  and  you  re- 
joice in  its  warmth  as  it  shines  upon  the  gardens  with 
their  riot  of  color — yellow  and  white  chrysanthemums, 
roses,  and  masses  of  flaming  poinsettias,  surely  a  fair 
setting  for  the  girls  who  walk  amid  its  changing  love- 
liness. 

Cosmopolitan  As  you  leave  the  setting  and  for  a  few 
Atmosphere.  days  merge  yourself  into  the  life  that 
is  going  on  within,  there  are  a  few  outstanding  impres- 
sions that  fasten  upon  you  and  persistently  mingle  with 
Lai  Bagh  memories.  Of  these,  perhaps,  the  foremost  is 
the  cosmopolitan  atmosphere.  Here  you  have  on  the 


LUCKNOW  63 

one  hand  a  group  of  American  college  women  repre- 
senting no  one  locality,  no  narrow  section  of  American 
life,  but  drawn  from  east  and  west,  north  and  south. 
On  the  other  side,  you  see  a  body  of  nearly  sixty  Indian 
students  whose  homes  range  all  the  way  from  Ceylon 
to  the  Northwest  frontier,  from  Singapore  to  Bombay. 
What  of  the  result  ?  It  is  an  atmosphere  where  East 
and  West  meet,  not  in  conflict,  but  in  a  spirit  of  give 
and  take,  where  each  re-inforces  the  other.  It  is  prob- 
ably due  to  this  friendly  clash  of  ideas  that  the  "typical" 
student  at  Isabella  Thoburn  strikes  the  observer  as  of 
no  "type"  at  all,  but  a  person  whose  ideas  are  her  own 
and  who  has  a  gift  for  original  thinking  rare  in  one's 
experience  of  Indian  girls.  In  the  class  forums  that 
were  held  during  my  visit  the  most  striking  element 
was  the  difference  of  opinion,  and  its  free  expression. 

Scholarship.  Lai  Bagh  is  no  longer  satisfied  with 

the  production  of  mere  graduates.  Her  ambition  is 
now  reaching  out  to  post-graduate  study,  made  possible 
by  the  gift  of  an  American  fellowship.  The  first  to  re- 
ceive this  honor  are  two  Indian  members  of  the  fac- 
ulty, one  of  them  Miss  Thillayampalam,  Professor  of 
Biology,  whose  home  is  in  far-off  Ceylon  at  the  other 
end  of  India's  world.  Henceforth,  America  may  expect 
to  find  each  year  one  member  of  the  Lai  Bagh  family 
enrolled  in  some  school  of  graduate  work.  Such  work, 
however,  is  not  to  be  confined  to  a  scholarship  in  a 
foreign  land,  for  this  year  the  college  enrolls  Regina 
Thumboo,  its  first  candidate  for  the  degree  of  M.  A. 


64  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

Her  parents,  originally  from  the  South,  emigrated 
from  Madras  to  Singapore.  There  Regina  was  born, 
the  youngest  of  five  children.  The  father,  a  civil 
engineer  in  the  employ  of  a  local  rajah  was  am- 
bitious for  his  children,  and,  seeing  in  Regina  a  child 
of  unusual  promise,  sent  her  first  to  a  Singapore  school, 
then  on  the  long  journey  across  to  Calcutta  and  inland 
to  Lucknow.  At  Lai  Bagh  she  stands  foremost  in 
scholarship.  When  she  has  completed  her  M.A.  in 
history  and  had  her  year  of  advanced  work  in  some 
American  university,  she  plans  to  return  to  the  faculty 
of  her  Alma  Mater. 

Scholarship  at  Isabella  Thoburn  Col- 
Social  Questions,  i         i  i«        i     •     «       •  « 

lege  does  not  deal  exclusively  with  the 

dusty  records  of  dead  languages  and  bygone  civiliza- 
tions. It  is  linked  up  with  present  questions,  and  is 
alive  to  the  changing  India  of  to-day.  Among  the  mat- 
ters discussed  during  my  visit  were  such  as :  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  vernacular  for  English  in  the  university 
course;  the  possibility  of  a  national  language  for  all 
India ;  the  advisability  of  co-education ;  and  the  place 
of  the  unmarried  woman  in  New  India.  To  report  all 
that  the  girls  said  and  wrote  would  require  a  book  for 
itself,  but  so  far  as  space  allows  we  will  let  the  girls 
speak  for  themselves. 

Co-education.  The  Senior  Class  of  eight  discussed 
co-education  with  great  interest,  and  when  the  vote 
was  taken  five  were  in  the  affirmative  and  only  three  in 
the  negative. 


w 
o 
w 

h4 

.-1 

o 
o 


O 


w 
o 


LUCKNOW  65 

The  following  paper  voices  the  objections  to  co-edu- 
cation as  expressed  by  one  especially  thoughtful 
student : 

"Co-education  is  an  excellent  thing,  but  it  can  only 
work  successfully  in  those  highly  civilized  countries 
where  intellectual  and  moral  strength  and  freedom  of 
intercourse  control  the  lives  and  thoughts  of  the  stu- 
dent bodies.  Unfortunately  these  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  co-education  are  sadly  lacking  in  India. 

"Although  woman's  education  is  being  pushed  for- 
ward with  considerable  force,  for  many  years  to  come 
the  girls  will  still  be  a  small  minority  in  comparison 
with  the  number  of  boys.  Besides,  in  two  or  three 
cases  where  Indian  girls  have  had  the  privilege  of 
studying  with  the  boys,  they  have  told  me  that,  in  spite 
of  immensely  enjoying  the  competitive  spirit  and 
broadminded  behavior  of  the  boys,  they  always  felt  a 
certain  strain  and  strangeness  in  their  company.  One 
student  attended  a  history  class  for  full  two  years  and 
yet  she  never  got  acquainted  with  one  single  boy  in  her 
class.  There  is  no  social  intercourse  between  the  two 
parties.  If  each  side  does  not  stand  on  its  own  dignity 
in  constant  fear  of  overstepping  the  bounds  of  eti- 
quette and  courtesy,  their  reputation  is  bound  to  be 
marred." 

The  arguments  for  the  other  side  are  presented  as 
well.  The  American  reader  may  be  interested  to  see 
that  the  Indian  college  girl  does  not  consider  Western 
ways  perfect,  but  is  quite  ready  to  criticize  the  manners 
and  morals  of  her  American  cousin. 


66  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

"Co-education  cannot  burst  upon  India  like  lightning. 
It  has  to  grow  gradually  in  society ;  and  until  there  is  a 
perfect  understanding  and  sympathy  between  the  sexes, 
this  system  will  not  work. 

"Again,  co-education  should  not  begin  from  college. 
The  girls  come  in  from  high  schools  where  they  are 
locked  up  and  have  no  contact  with  the  outside  world ; 
and  if  they  come  into  such  colleges  when  many  of  them 
are  immature,  there  will  be  not  only  a  complete  failure 
of  the  system,  but  the  result  will  be  fatal  in  many  cases. 
So  the  system  should  be  introduced  from  the  primary 
department  and  worked  up  through  the  high  schools 
and  colleges. 

"First,  there  is  the  question  of  chivalry,  which  is  a 
problem  that  Indian  men  should  solve  for  themselves. 
But  how  are  they  to  solve  it?  If  they  study  with 
women,  chivalry  would  become  natural  to  them. 

"On  the  other  hand,  a  woman  has  to  learn  how  to 
receive  a  man's  attention — how  far  to  go  in  her  be- 
havior. The  question  now  is,  where  can  she  learn 
this  ?  Isn't  it  by  mixing  and  mingling  in  a  place  where 
she  feels  that  she  is  not  inferior  to  man?  It  is  in  an 
educational  institution  that  this  equality  is  most  keenly 
felt. 

"Closely  allied  with  chivalry  is  the  question  of  mod- 
esty. It  is  commonly  said  that  Indian  women  have  a 
poise,  quietness,  and  reserve  different  to  that  in  West- 
ern women. 

"Boldness  in  women  is  another  fact  connected  with 
the  above.  Indian  men  and  women  should  not  try  to 


67 

follow  Western  manners.  They  have  hereditary  man- 
ners which  should  not  be  deserted.  Indian  women  can 
keep  their  modesty  and  reserve  even  while  mixing  with 
men.  If  co-education  is  made  a  slow  development  this, 
difficulty  will  not  appear. 

"Secondly,  this  system  will  give  more  facilities  to 
woman  for  various  kinds  of  occupation.  She  will  then 
realize  that  her  education  is  not  confined  to  her  home 
merely,  but  that  she  has  a  right  to  contribute  to  human- 
ity just  as  big  a  share  as  any  man.  With  this  realization 
there  will  come  efforts  on  her  part  to  better  the  condi- 
tion of  her  country  by  doing  her  little  share.  How 
much  a  woman  can  do  who  has  a  firm  conviction  that 
she  is  not  inferior  to  any  one  in  this  life,  but  that  she  is 
a  contributor  to  her  country,  whichsoever  vocation  she 
follows  in  life,  in  that  she  can  do  her  share ! 

"The  third  point  is  that  early  marriage  and  widow- 
hood will  be  lessened  in  a  large  degree.  While  educa- 
tion will  teach  men  and  women  to  reverence  their  par- 
ents and  always  consult  them,  at  the  same  time  they  will 
learn  to  choose  for  themselves.  By  coming  in  contact 
with  the  opposite  sex,  they  will  learn  to  decide  their 
marriage  themselves;  and  choosing  does  not  come  at 
an  early  and  immature  age.  Thus  child  widowhood, 
too,  will  be  decreased.  Then,  too,  the  widows  will  be 
able  to  work  for  their  livelihood  if  they  don't  wish  to 
marry  again." 

Purdah.  To  the  North  India  girl,  perhaps  the 

most  vexing  social  question  is  that  of  purdah.    How 


68  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

can  education  reach  women  who  live  shut  away  from 
the  sky  and  the  sun  and  the  lives  of  men?  On  the 
other  hand,  if  after  the  seclusion  of  a  thousand  years 
freedom  were  suddenly  thrust  upon  women  not  even 
trained  to  desire  it,  who  can  measure  the  disaster  that 
would  follow  ?  Where  can  the  vicious  circle  be  broken, 
and  how  ? 

Tiny  arcs  of  its  circumference  have  been  broken  al- 
ready. Lai  Bagh  includes  in  its  family  not  only  its 
majority  of  Christian  girls,  but  also  a  scattering  of 
Hindus  and  Muhammadans  who  have  made  more  or 
less  of  a  break  with  ancestral  customs. 

One  among  these  is  a  member  of  the  Sophomore 
Class,  Omiabala  Chatter ji  of  Allahabad.  Of  Brahman 
parentage,  she  was  fortunate  in  having  a  father  of 
liberal  views,  who  was  ambitious  for  his  daughter's 
education.  He  died  when  Omiabala  was  but  three 
years  old,  but  not  before  he  had  passed  on  to  his  wife 
his  hopes  for  the  future  of  the  little  daughter.  The 
mother,  with  no  experience  of  school  life  herself,  but 
only  the  limited  opportunity  of  a  little  teaching  in  her 
own  home,  yet  entered  into  the  father's  ambitions. 
From  childhood  Omiabala  was  taught  that  hers  was 
not  to  be  the  ordinary  life  of  the  Brahman  woman — 
she  was  set  apart  by  her  father's  wish,  dedicated  to  the 
service  of  her  people.  So  the  years  came  and  went, 
and  instead  of  wedding  festivities  the  child  was  sent 
away  on  the  journey  to  Lucknow,  to  enter  into  a 
strange,  new  life.  There  followed  weeks  of  homesick- 
ness and  longing,  then  gradual  adjustment,  then  glad 


LUCKNOW  69 

acceptance  of  new  opportunity.  Omiabala  now  talks 
enthusiastically  of  her  future  plans  for  work  among 
her  own  people — plans  for  the  education  of  Brahman 
girls,  and  for  marriage  reform  such  as  shall  make  this 
possible. 

The  Freshman  Class  had  a  spirited  discussion  as  to 
the  benefits  and  evils  of  the  purdah  system.  Opinions 
ranged  all  the  way  from  that  of  the  zealous  young  re- 
former who  wished  it  abolished  at  once  and  for  all; 
through  advocates  of  slow  changes  lasting  ten,  twenty, 
or  even  thirty  years;  all  the  way  to  the  young  Hindu 
wife,  who  would  never  see  it  done  away  with,  "because 
women  would  become  disobedient  to  their  husbands." 

Here  are  some  of  the  pros  and  cons.  A  Hindu 
student  writes: 

"I  maintain  that  the  purdah  system  should  not  be 
done  away  with  altogether,  for  it  will  upset  the  whole 
foundation  of  the  Hindu  principle  of  'dharm'  or  how  a 
woman  should  act  and  behave  before  she  is  called  a 
good  and  honorable  woman.  Sometimes,  when  a 
woman  is  given  much  freedom  and  liberty  and  is  al- 
lowed to  go  wherever  she  pleases,  she  begins  to  take 
advantage  of  such  opportunities  and  does  those  things 
which  might  bring  disgrace  to  the  family.  The  ques- 
tion of  education  should  not  be  brought  up  in  connec- 
tion with  the  purdah,  for  even  the  educated  ladies  are 
apt  to  fall  in  the  same  temptation  as  the  uneducated 
ones  when  the  purdah  system  is  removed  altogether. 
The  purdah  system  has  done  much  to  maintain  the  hon- 
or and  respect  of  the  higher  class  ladies.  The  low 


70  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

class  women  who  are  always  abroad  working  among 
men  and  in  the  midst  of  throngs  of  people  are  not  edu- 
cated at  all  and  have  as  much  freedom  as  their  men 
have.  So  we  can  conclude  that  the  purdah  system  only 
exists  among  higher  classes  of  people  and  those  who 
care  much  for  the  honor  and  respect  of  their  family. 
The  higher  a  family  is  the  more  it  will  be  particular 
about  this  system." 

The  following  paragraph  expresses  the  views  of  a 
Muhammadan  Freshman : 

"Among  us,  that  is  the  Muslims,  purdah  is  very 
strict.  Ladies  need  purdah  at  present,  for  the  men 
are  not  civilized  enough.  Besides,  the  purdah  system 
should  be  gradually  abolished.  If  too  much  freedom  is 
given  all  at  once,  ladies  won't  know  how  to  behave  and 
they  will  be  an  hindrance  in  further  progress.  Educa- 
tion is  at  the  back  of  progress.  Girls  should  first  be 
educated  and  given  liberty  gradually.  Though  we 
Muslim  girls  have  come  to  Christian  colleges  and  don't 
observe  purdah,  yet  we  are  very  careful  of  how  we 
should  make  the  best  of  it  and  show  a  good  example  by 
our  personality  and  behavior  so  that  the  people  who 
criticize  us  may  not  have  anything  to  say.  I  think  if  all 
of  us  try  hard  to  abolish  this  system  it  will  take  us  at 
least  twenty  years  to  do  it.  No  matter  what  happens  I 
don't  approve  of  ladies  mixing  very  much  with  gentle- 
men. 

"There  are  certainly  many  disadvantages  in  the  pur- 
dah system.  For  instance,  it  makes  ladies  quite  help- 
less and  dependent.  They  cannot  go  out  to  get  any 


LUCKNOW  71 

thing  or  travel  even  if  they  are  in  great  necessity.  They 
do  not  know  the  streets  and  roads,  so  they  cannot  run 
away  to  save  their  honor  or  life.  Men  seem  to  become 
their  right  hand  and  feet.  They  do  not  know,  often, 
what  is  going  on  outside  their  homes  and  do  not  enjoy 
the  beauty  of  nature,  and  live  an  uneventful  life.  This 
seems  to  make  the  ladies  lazy  and  they  always  keep 
planning  marriages.  This  is  the  chief  reason  of  the 
early  marriage  of  girls  among  the  Muslims.  The  girl 
herself  has  nothing  to  do,  so  they  think  it  best  for  her 
to  get  married." 

With  these  it  is  interesting  to  compare  the  views  of 
a  Christian  student,  a  young  pastor's  wife,  who  along 
with  the  care  of  home  and  children  is  now  receiving 
the  higher  education  of  which  she  was  deprived  in  her 
schoolgirl  days. 

"The  genius  of  the  East  will  take  some  time  to  be 
taught  the  social  customs  of  the  West.  To  an  Indian 
it  would  be  a  horrible  idea  if  his  sister  or  daughter  or 
wife  will  go  out  to  tea  or  supper  or  dance  with  a  young 
man  who  is  neither  related  nor  a  close  friend  of  the 
family.  India  will  fondly  preserve  its  genius. 

"Indian  leaders  look  with  alarm  at  the  possibility  of  a 
female  India  of  the  type  of  the  West.  They  would  like 
the  purdah  system  to  be  removed,  females  to  be  edu- 
cated, to  get  the  franchise,  and  still  for  them  to  keep 
their  modesty.  There  are  many  who  would  like  to 
break  this  barrier,  but  it  would  be  disastrous  for  India 
to  arrive  at  such  a  state  within  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
when  ninety-nine  out  of  one  hundred  women  are  illiter- 
ate. 


72  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

"Education  is  essential  and  as  long  as  Indian  women, 
the  future  mothers  of  India,  do  not  realize  their  re- 
sponsibility, it  is  much  better  and  wiser  that  they  should 
remain  behind  the  scene. 

"The  help  we  can  give  in  bringing  about  this  great  re- 
form is  to  show  by  our  example.  Freedom  does  not 
mean  simply  coming  out  of  purdah  and  taking  undue 
advantage  and  misuse  of  liberty.  We  who  have  done 
away  with  our  purdah  should  not  be  stumbling  blocks 
to  others.  Freedom  guided  and  governed  by  the  Spirit 
of  God  is  the  only  freedom  and  every  true  citizen  ought 
to  help  to  bring  it  about." 

Social  Service.  Lai  Bagh  students  are  interested  not 
only  in  the  theories  of  social  reform ;  they  are  taking  a 
direct  part  in  the  application  of  these  theories  through 
the  means  of  social  service,  not  put  off  for  some  future 
"career,"  but  carried  on  during  the  busy  weeks  of  col- 
lege life.  Nor  is  such  service  merely  social ;  through  it 
all  the  Christian  motive  holds  sway.  We  will  let  one 
of  the  students  tell  in  her  own  words  what  they  are 
attempting. 

"  'Cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness'  is  the  first  lesson 
we  teach  in  our  social  and  Christian  service  fields. 
Both  in  our  work  in  the  city  and  in  our  own  servants' 
compound,  we  emphasize  personal  cleanliness  and  that 
of  the  home,  and  have  regular  inspection  of  servants' 
homes. 

"Religious  instruction  is  given  to  non-Christian  chil- 
dren and  women  in  various  sections  of  the  city  in 


LUCKNOW  73 

separate  classes.  Side  by  side  with  these,  they  are 
given  tips  about  doctoring  simple  ailments,  and  taught 
how  to  take  precautions  at  the  time  of  epidemics  like 
cholera,  typhoid,  etc.  Lotions,  fever  mixtures,  cough 
mixtures,  quinine,  etc.,  are  given  to  the  poorer  de- 
pressed classes,  as  also  clothes  and  soap  to  the  needy 
ones. 

"In  the  servants'  compound  plots  have  been  provided 
for  gardening,  and  provision  made  for  the  children's 
play,  and  pictures  given  to  parents  as  prizes  for  tidy 
homes.  Soap  and  clothes  and  medicines  are  given  here 
also;  a  special  series  of  lectures  on  diseases  and  the 
evils  of  drink  has  been  started.  A  lecture  a  week  is 
given — cholera,  malaria,  typhoid  fever,  dysentery  have 
been  touched  on — lantern  slides  and  charts  and  pictures 
have  been  used  for  illustration.  On  Saturday  nights 
the  Christian  servants  have  song-service  and  prayer 
meeting,  and  on  Sunday  noon  a  Bible  class.  Each  of 
these  is  conducted  by  a  teacher  assisted  by  girls  of  the 
College. 

"There  is  opportunity  for  service  for  people  of  all 
tastes — those  who  prefer  teaching  how  to  read  and 
write,  for  sewing,  for  care  of  the  health,  care  of  the 
baby,  avoiding  sickness,  nursing  the  sick  .  .  .  but  in 
every  case  devotion,  enthusiasm,  and  a  sympathetic 
Christian  spirit  are  needed.  Our  motive  both  among 
our  own  Christian  servants  and  those  who  reside  in  the 
city  and  are  non-Christians  is  to  serve  the  least  of  our 
needy  fellowmen  according  to  the  wishes  of  our  Mas- 
ter, and  to  enlighten  and  uplift  our  less  fortunate 


74  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

neighbors  through  the  avenues  of  Christian  social  serv- 
ice." 

An  interesting  practical  suggestion  is  the  following: 

"In  our  Social  Service  class,  which  is  held  every 
Thursday,  there  has  come  up  a  suggestion  about  open- 
ing up  a  few  Purdah  Parks  for  Indian  ladies.  It  is 
very  essential  that  Indian  women  should  have  some 
places,  where  they  can  take  recreation  and  have  some 
social  intercourse  with  one  another,  also  that  the  rich 
and  poor  may  all  meet  and  be  brought  into  sympathy 
with  one  another. 

"There  is  a  Park  right  in  front  of  our  College,  and 
we  have  suggested  that,  if  this  particular  Park  is  made 
into  a  Purdah  Park  once  a  week,  then  we  college  girls 
interested  in  social  service  work  can  form  a  committee 
and  look  after  the  different  arrangements,  such  as  the 
water  supply,  games,  playthings  for  children,  etc. 

"We  have  drawn  up  a  petition  and  this  will  be  signed 
by  the  influential  ladies  of  this  place,  such  as  the  wives 
of  the  Professors  of  our  Lucknow  University,  and 
then  it  will  be  presented  to  the  Lucknow  Improvement 
Trust  Committee. 

"We  all  hope  that  this  petition  will  be  granted,  and 
our  sisters  will  have  more  of  social  life  and  hygienic 
advantages,  to  help  make  stronger  mothers  and 
stronger  children." 

Nor  do  the  girls  of  Isabella  Thoburn  College  forget 
all  these  interests  when  vacation  days  come  round. 
This  tells  something  of  holiday  opportunity.  How  do 
our  summer  vacations  compare  with  it  ? 


LUCKNOW  75 

"How  apt  one  is  to  slacken  and  get  a  little  selfish  in 
planning  out  a  programme  for  a  holiday.  One  is  not 
tied  down  to  the  usual  duties  and  routine  of  school 
work,  and  plans  are  made  as  to  the  best  possible  way 
of  spending  the  days  for  one's  own  pleasure  and  re- 
laxation. The  many  little  things  that  one's  heart  longs 
for,  and  for  which  there  is  no  time  during  the  busy 
days,  are  now  looked  forward  to ;  a  particular  piece  of 
needlework,  a  favorite  book,  some  excursions  to 
places  of  interest;  all  these  and  other  things  are  likely 
to  crowd  out  thoughts  of  our  duties  to  others  in  making 
life  a  little  better  and  some  one  a  little  happier  each  day. 

"And  yet  a  holiday  is  the  time  when  one  can  more 
freely  give  oneself  to  others,  for  opportunities  of  help- 
ful service  offer  themselves  in  the  very  holiday  pur- 
suits, if  one  has  eyes  for  them. 

"Rooming  in  a  home  where  many  mothers  have  still 
many  more  children,  one  would  feel  at  first  like  escap- 
ing from  the  noise  and  commotion  caused  by  crying 
babies,  and  yet  here  are  some  opportunities  of  service. 
It  is  never  a  wise  plan  to  leave  children  to  the  entire 
care  of  ayahs.  A  very  profitable  hour  may  be  spent  in 
directing  games  when  the  little  people  build  with  their 
bricks  gates  and  bridges,  houses  and  castles,  and  the 
older  ones  listen  with  interest  to  some  story  of  adven- 
ture. An  hour  spent  in  the  open  air  under  shady  trees 
in  this  way  would  draw  many  a  grateful  heart,  for 
there  would  be  less  crying,  fewer  quarrels,  and  a  little 
more  peace  for  all  around. 

"In  these  days  when  strikes  are  so  common,  many 


76  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

opportunities  for  social  service  offer  themselves.  It 
may  be  a  postal  strike.  Now,  not  many  of  us  like  to 
be  kept  waiting  for  our  mail,  and,  if  the  postmen  are 
not  bringing  us  our  letters,  we  very  soon  contrive  some 
means  of  getting  them.  I  grant  it  isn't  a  very  enviable 
job  to  be  standing  outside  a  delivery  window  awaiting 
the  sorting  of  letters  by  a  crew  of  girl  guides  and  boy 
scouts,  who  are  not  any  too  serious  about  their  work. 
But  once  the  letters  are  secured  and  delivered  at  the 
neighboring  homes  of  friends  and  others,  it  is  some- 
thing done,  besides  the  satisfaction  of  being  able  to 
sit  down  and  read  your  own  letters  as  well  as  having 
the  grateful  appreciation  from  others. 

"Again,  a  picnic  has  been  planned  to  some  far  away 
hill.  The  party  arrives;  tiffin  baskets  are  placed  in 
some  shady  spot.  One  of  the  party  wanders  away  to  a 
little  village  not  far  off.  She  is  soon  surrounded  by  a 
group  of  scrubby  children,  who  watch  her  with  eyes 
full  of  curiosity  and  wonder.  She  dips  her  hand  into 
the  bag  she  has  been  carrying  and  brings  out  a  handful 
of  nuts  and  oranges,  and,  before  sharing  them  with  the 
children,  she  invites  them  to  wash  their  scrubby,  little 
hands  and  faces  in  the  sparkling  stream  of  clear,  crys- 
tal water  that  is  flowing  through  the  valley.  She  gets 
to  talking  to  them,  and  asks  about  their  homes,  and  one 
little  child  leads  her  to  a  meagre,  little,  grassy  hut  in 
which  her  sick  sister  is  lying.  She  hasn't  any  medicine 
with  her,  but  she  opens  wide  the  door  of  the  hut  and 
lets  the  bright  sunlight  in.  She  strokes  the  little  one's 
feverish  brow,  and  sets  to,  and  fixes  up  the  bed  and 


LUCKNOW  77 

soon  gets  the  sickroom,  such  as  it  is,  clean  and  tidy. 
The  mother  is  touched  by  the  gentle  kindliness  of  the 
stranger  and  confides  her  sorrows  to  her.  Other  homes 
are  visited.  People  expecting  the  kind  visitor  brush  up 
and  tidy  their  huts. 

"So  the  picnic  excursion  ends  leaving  a  cleaner  and 
happier  spot  nestling  in  among  those  mountainsides. 
Several  visits  are  paid  to  the  little  village.  The  stranger 
is  no  longer  a  stranger,  for  she  is  now  known  and  loved 
and  is  greeted  by  clean,  happy,  smiling  children,  and 
blessed  by  grateful  mothers.  And  so  in  the  home  and 
in  the  office  and  in  God's  out-of-doors  we  can  find  op- 
portunities for  helping  others." 

Eminent  among  the  student  body  for  maturity  of 
thought  and  depth  of  Christian  purpose  is  Shelomith 
Vincent.  Many  of  these  characteristics  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  her  splendid  inheritance.  Her  father 
was  of  the  military  caste,  the  son  of  a  Zemindar,  or 
petty  rajah.  At  the  time  of  the  Mutiny  he,  a  boy  of 
ten  years,  ran  away  in  the  crowd  and  followed  the 
mutineers  on  their  long  march  from  Lucknow  to  Agra, 
where  he  was  rescued  by  a  missionary  and  brought  up 
in  his  family.  Later,  longing  to  know  his  past,  the 
young  man  returned  to  Lucknow,  found  his  relatives, 
weighed  in  the  balance  the  claims  of  Hinduism  and 
Christianity,  and  of  his  own  accord  decided  for  the 
latter.  Later  we  see  him  a  Sanskrit  student  in  Benares, 
where  he  married  his  wife,  a  fifteen-year-old  Brahman 
convert. 

The  Christian  couple  moved  soon  to  the  Central 


78  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

Provinces,  where  Mr.  Vincent  entered  upon  his  twenty- 
five  years  of  service  as  a  Christian  pastor,  using  his 
Sanskrit  learning  to  interpret  the  message  of  Christian- 
ity to  his  Hindu  friends.  Yet  it  was  in  lowlier  ways 
that  his  life  was  most  telling.  Settling  in  a  peasant 
colony  of  a  thousand  so-called  converts,  only  half- 
Christianized,  the  story  of  his  labors  and  triumphs 
reads  like  that  of  Columba,  or  Boniface  in  early 
Europe.  Through  perils  of  robbers  and  perils  of 
famine  he  labored  on,  building  villages,  digging  wells, 
distributing  American  corn  in  famine  days,  reproving, 
teaching,  guiding.  All  this  I  am  telling,  because  it  ex- 
plains much  of  the  daughter's  quiet  strength.  One  of 
ten  children,  she  has  spent  many  years  in  earning 
money  to  educate  the  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  and 
she  is  finishing  her  college  course  as  a  mature  woman. 
Miss  Vincent  hopes  that  the  American  fellowship  may 
one  day  be  hers ;  and  already  her  plans  are  developing 
as  to  the  ways  she  will  contrive  to  pass  on  her  oppor- 
tunities to  her  fellow  countrywomen.  Her  heart  is 
with  those  illiterate  village  women  among  whom  her 
childhood  was  passed;  her  longing  is  to  share  with 
them  the  truth,  the  beauty,  and  the  goodness  with 
which  Lai  Bagh  has  filled  her  days. 

Has  Lai  Bagh  been  a  paying  investment  ?  One  wishes 
that  every  one  whose  dollars  have  found  expression 
in  its  walls  might  come  to  feel  the  indefinaole  spirit 
that  pervades  them,  filling  cold  brick  and  mortar  with 
life  energy.  For  centuries  philosophers  searched  for 
that  Philosopher's  Stone  that  was  to  transmute  base 


LUCKNOW  79 

metals  into  gold.  In  the  world  to-day  there  are  those 
who  have  found  a  subtler  magic  that  transforms  dead 
gold  and  silver  into  warm  human  purposes  and  the 
Christ-spirit  of  service.  That  is  the  miracle  one 
sees  in  daily  process  at  Lai  Bagh. 


IN  THE  SECRET  OF  HIS  PRESENCE 
ELLEN  LAKSHMI  GOREH  (Lucknow  College) 

In  the  secret  of  His  presence  how  my  soul  delights  to  hide! 
Oh,  how  precious  are  the  lessons  which  I  learn  at  Jesus'  side  1 
Earthly  cares  can  never  vex  me,  neither  trials  lay  me  low; 
For  when  Satan  comes  to  tempt  me,  to  the  secret  place  I  go. 

When  my  soul  is  faint  and  thirsty,  'neath  the  shadow  of  His 

wing 
There  is  cool  and  pleasant  shelter,  and  a  fresh  and  crystal 

spring ; 
And  my  Saviour   rests   beside   me,   as   we  hold   communion 

sweet : 
If  I  tried,  I  could  not  utter  what  He  says  when  thus  we  meet. 

Only  this  I  know:  I  tell  Him  all  my  doubts,  my  griefs  and 

fears ; 
Oh,   how  patiently  He   listens!    and   my   drooping   soul    He 

cheers : 
Do  you  think  He  ne'er  reproves  me?   What  a  false  friend  He 

would  be, 
If  He  never,  never  told  me  of  the  sins  which  He  must  see. 

Would  you  like  to  know  the  sweetness  of  the  secret  of  the 

Lord? 
Go  and  hide  beneath  His  shadow:  this   shall  then  be  your 

reward ; 
And  whene'er  you  leave  the  silence  of  that  happy  meeting 

place, 
You  must  mind  and  bear  the  image  of  the  Master  in  your  face. 


80 


SHELOMITH  VINCENT 


LAL  BAGH  ALUMNAE  RECORDS  SHOW  THE  FOLLOWING: 

The   first  Kindergarten   in   India. 

The  first  college  in  India  with  full  staff  of  women  and  residence 
accommodation. 

The  first  Arya  Samaj  B.  A.  graduate. 

The  F.  Sc.  graduate  who  became  the  second  woman  with  the  B.  Sc. 
degree  in  India. 

The  F.  Sc.  graduate  who  later  graduated  at  the  foremost  Medical 
College  in  North  India  as  the  first  Muhanimadan  woman  doctor  in 
India  and  probably  in  the  world. 

The  first  woman  B.  A.  and  the  first  Normal  School  graduate  from 
Rajputana. 

The   first  woman  to  receive  her  M.  A.   in  North  India. 

The  first  Muhammadan  woman  to  take  her  F.  A.  examination  from 
the  Central  Provinces. 

Probably  the  first  F.  A.  student  to  take  her  examination  in  purdah. 

The  first  Teachers  Conference  (held  annually)  in  India. 

The  first  woman's  college  to  offer  the  F.  Sc.  course. 

The  first  college  to  have  on  its  staff  an  Indian  lady. 

The  first  woman  (Lilavati  Singh)  from  the  Orient  to  serve  on  a 
world's  Committee. 

The  first  woman   dentist. 

The  first  woman  agriculturist. 

The  first  woman  in  India  to  be  in  charge  of  a  Boys*  High  School. 

A  Lai  Bagh  graduate  organized  the  Home  Missionary  Society  which 
has  developed  into  an  agency  of  great  service  to  the  neglected  Anglo- 
Indian  community  scattered  throughout  India. 

The  Lai  Bagh  student  who  took  an  agricultural  course  in  America 
and  ia  now  helping  convert  wastes  of  the  Himalaya  regions  into 
fruitful  valleys. 

Miss  Phoebe  Rowe,  an  Anglo-Indian  who  was  associated  with  Lai 
Bagh  in  Miss  Thoburn's  time,  was  a  wonderful  influence  in  the  vil- 
lages of  North  India  and  carried  the  Christian  message  by  her  beauti- 
ful voice  as  well  as  her  consecrated  personality.  She  traveled  in 
America,  endearing  India  to  many  friends  here.  She  is  one — perhaps 
the  most  remarkable,  however — of  many  Lai  Bagh  daughters  who  are 
serving  as  evangelists  in  faraway  places. 


81 


FROM  A  STUDENT  AT  MADRAS  WOMEN'S  COLLEGE 

"Your  letter  was  handed  to  me  as  I  returned  from  my 
evening  hour  of  prayer,  prayer  for  our  school,  special  prayer 
for  the  problem  God  has  called  us  to  tackle  together.  I 
believe  that  the  solution  for  many  of  our  problems  at  school 
is  to  put  things  on  a  Christian  foundation.  We  want  workers 
who  are  real  Christians  and  who  love  the  Master  as  sin- 
cerely as  they  do  themselves  and  serve  Him  for  their  love  of 
Him.  This  may  not  be  easy  work  for  us  to  do,  but  if  God 
is  transforming  the  whole  globe  and  moulding  it  from  the 
"new  spiritual  center,"  namely, — Jesus  Christ,  it  is  certainly 
not  hard  for  Him  to  accomplish  it  in  this  place.  How  He 
is  going  to  do  it  I  am  blind  to  see.  Let  us  put  our  feet  on 
the  one  step  that  we  see  with  the  faith  expressed  in  "One 
step  enough  for  me,"  and  the  next  step  will  flash  before,  our 
eyes.  One  question  that  used  to  trouble  me  is,  how  we  are 
to  do  the  work.  The  poem  by  Edward  Sill  in  'The  Manhood 
of  the  Master'  cheers  me  up  now  as  then  with  the  thought 
that  a  broken  sword  flung  away  by  a  craven  as  useless  was 
used  by  a  king's  son  to  win  victory  in  the  same  battle.  God 
will  use  it  and  perform  His  work.  We  have  dedicated  our- 
selves for  His  duty  which  is  gripping  our  souls.  He  will 
use  them  according  to  His  purpose." 


CHAPTER  FOUR 
AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE 

Education  and  While  statesmen  discuss  disarmament 
World  Peace.  and  politicians  and  newspaper  editors 
foment  race  consciousness  and  mutual  distrust,  certain 
forces  that  never  figure  in  newspaper  headlines,  that 
come  "not  with  observation,"  are  working  with  silent 
constructive  power  to  bind  nations  together  in  ties  of 
peace  and  good  will.  Among  these  silent  forces  are 
certain  educational  institutions.  Columbia  University 
has  its  Cosmopolitan  Club,  at  whose  Sunday  night  sup- 
pers you  may  meet  representatives  of  forty  to  fifty 
nations,  Occidental  and  Oriental.  In  the  Near  East, 
amid  the  race  hatred  and  strife  that  set  every  man's 
hand  against  his  fellow,  the  American  Colleges  at  Con- 
stantinople and  Beirut  have  stood  foremost  among  the 
forces  that  produce  unification  and  brotherhood. 

During  the  war-scarred  days  of  1915,  while  nation 
was  rising  up  against  nation,  there  was  founded  in  the 
city  of  Madras  one  of  these  international  ventures  in 
co-operation.  Known  to  the  world  of  India  as  the 
Women's  Christian  College  of  Madras,  it  might  just  as 
truthfully  be  called  a  Triangular  Alliance  in  Education, 
for  in  it  Great  Britain  including  Canada,  the  United 
States,  and  India  are  joined  together  in  educational 
endeavor.  America  may  well  admire  what  Britain  has 
been  doing  during  long  years  for  India's  educational 

83 


84  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

advancement.  Among  England's  more  recent  contri- 
butions to  education  in  India  none  has  been  greater 
that  the  coming  of  Miss  Eleanor  McDougall  from  Lon- 
don University  to  take  the  principalship  of  this  inter- 
national college  for  women.  Under  her  wise  leader- 
ship British  and  American  women  have  worked  in  one 
harmonious  unit,  and  international  co-operation  has 
been  transformed  from  theory  to  fact. 

Where  Missions  The  Women's  Christian  College  is 
Co-operate.  not  only  international,  it  is  also  inter- 

missionary.  Supported  by  fourteen  different  Mission 
Boards,  including  almost  every  shade  of  Protestant 
belief  and  every  form  of  church  government,  it  stands 
not  only  for  international  friendship,  but  also  as  an 
outstanding  evidence  of  Christian  unity. 

The  staff  and  the  student  body  are  as  varied  as  the 
supporting  constituency.  In  the  former,  along  with 
British  and  American  professors  are  now  two  Indian 
women  lecturers,  Miss  George,  a  Syrian  Christian,  who 
teaches  history,  and  Miss  Janaki,  a  Hindu,  who  teaches 
botany.  Both  are  resident  and  a  happy  factor  in  the 
home  life  of  the  college.  Among  the  students  nine  In- 
dian languages  are  represented,  ranging  all  the  way 
from  Burma  to  Ceylon,  from  Bengal  to  the  Malabar 
Coast.  From  the  last  named  locality  come  Syrian 
Christians  in  great  numbers.  This  interesting  sect 
loves  to  trace  its  history  back  to  the  days  of  the  Apostle 
Thomas.  Be  that  historical  fact  or  merely  a  pious  tra- 
dition, this  sect  can  undoubtedly  boast  an  indigenous 


A  Road  Near  the  College 


The  Potters'  Shop 
STREET  SCENES  IN   MADRAS 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  85 

form  of  Christianity  that  dates  back  to  the  early  cen- 
turies of  the  Christian  era;  and  it  stands  to^iay  in  a 
place  of  honor  in  the  Indian  Christian  community. 

The  Sunflower  Perhaps  much  of  the  success  which 
and  the  Lamp.  the  College  at  Madras  has  achieved 
on  the  side  of  unity  is  due  to  the  fact  that  her  members 
are  too  busy  to  think  or  talk  about  it  because  their 
time  is  all  filled  up  with  actually  doing  things  together. 
Expressing  this  spirit  of  active  co-operation  is  the 
college  motto,  "Lighted  to  lighten" ;  the  emblem  in  the 
shield  is  a  tiny  lamp  such  as  may  burn  in  the  poorest 
homes  in  India.  Below  the  lamp  is  a  sunflower,  whose 
meaning  has  been  discussed  in  the  college  magazine  by 
a  new  student.  She  says,  "To-day  the  sunflower  stands 
for  very  much  in  my  mind.  It  is  symbolic  of  this  our 
College,  for,  as  our  amateur  botanists  tell  us,  the  sun- 
flower is  not  a  flower,  but  a  congregation  of  them.  The 
tiny  buds  in  the  centre  are  our  budding  intellects.  To- 
day they  are  in  the  making ;  to-morrow  they  will  bloom 
like  their  sisters  who  surround  them.  Nourished  from 
the  same  source,  their  fruit  will  be  even  likewise. 

"Around  these  are  the  golden  rays — each  a  tongue  of 
fire  to  protect  and  inspire.  There  is  none  high  or  low 
amongst  them,  being  all  alike,  and  these  are  our  tutors, 
and  the  sunflower  itself  turns  to  the  sun,  the  great 
giver  of  life,  for  its  inspiration,  ever  turning  to  him, 
never  losing  sight  of  his  face.  A  force  inexplicable 
draws  the  flower  to  the  King  of  Day,  even  as  our  hearts 
are  turned  to  Him  at  morn  and  at  eve,  be  we  East  or 
West." 


86  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

In  a  Garden.  It  is  fitting  that  the  sunflower  should 
bloom  ip  a  garden,  and  so  it  does.  This  time  it  is  not 
a  waited  garden  like  that  of  Lai  Bagh ;  the  Women's 
College  is  situated  out  from  the  city  in  a  green  and 
spacious  suburb,  where  the  little  River  Cooum  wanders 
by  its  open  spaces.  The  ten  acres  have  much  the  air  of 
an  American  college  campus, — the  same  sense  of 
academic  quiet,  of  detachment  from  the  work-a-day 
world.  The  whole  compound  is  dominated  by  the  tall, 
white  columns  of  the  old  main  building,  which  confer 
an  air  of  distinction  upon  the  whole  place,  as  well  they 
may,  for  have  they  not  guarded  successively  govern- 
ment officials  and  Indian  rajahs? 

Nearby  is  the  new  residence  hall,  as  modern  as  the 
other  is  historic.  Three  stories  in  height,  its  verandahs 
are  in  the  form  of  a  hollow  square,  and  look  out  upon  a 
courtyard  gay  with  the  bright-hued  foliage  of  crotons 
and  other  tropical  plants.  Beyond  is  the  garden  itself, 
filled  not  with  the  roses  and  chrysanthemums  of  winter 
Lucknow,  but  with  the  perpetual  summer  foliage  of 
spreading  rain  trees,  palms,  and  long  fronded  ferns, 
with  fluffy  maidenhair  between.  In  their  season  the 
purple  masses  of  Bougainvillea,  and  the  crimson  of  the 
Flamboya  tree  set  the  garden  afire.  In  the  evening 
when  the  girls  are  sitting  under  the  trees  or  walking 
down  the  long  vistas  with  the  level  sunbeams  bringing 
out  the  bright  colors  of  their  draped  saris,  it  brings  to 
mind  nothing  so  much  as  a  scene  from  "The  Princess" 
where  among  fair  English  gardens 

"One  walked  reciting  by  herself,  and  one 
In  this  hand  held  a  volume  as  to  read." 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIAI-CE  87 

Student  Yet  life  in  the  Women's  College  is  not 

Organizations.  a  cloistered  retreat  such  as  "The 
Princess"  tried  to  establish,  nor  are  its  activates  con- 
fined to  the  study  of  classics  in  a  garden.  Student  or- 
ganizations flourish  here  with  a  variety  almost  as  great 
as  in  the  West.  There  is,  first  of  all,  the  College  Com- 
mittee, which  corresponds  roughly  to  our  Scheme  oi 
Student  Government  Its  members  are  chosen  from  the 
c'asses  and  in  their  turn  elect  a  President  known  as 
"Senior  Student."  She  is  the  official  representative  of 
the  whole  student  body.  Communications  from  faculty 
to  students  pass  through  her,  and  she  represents  the 
College  on  state  occasions,  such  as  visits  from  the  Vice- 
roy or  other  Government  officials.  Various  student 
committees  are  also  elected  to  plan  meetings  for  the 
Literary  and  Debating  Societies,  to  organize  excursions 
for  "Seeing  Madras,"  and  to  plan  for  athletic  teams 
and  contests.  How  well  the  last  named  have  succeeded 
is  proved  by  the  silver  cup  carried  off  as  a  trophy  by 
the  College  badminton  team,  which  distinguished  itself 
as  the  winner  in  last  year's  intercollegiate  sports. 

An  unusual  organization  is  the  Star  Club,  which 
has  been  carried  on  for  several  years,  with  programme 
meetings  once  a  month  and  bi-weekly  groups  for  ob- 
servation. No  wonder  that  astrology  and  the  begin- 
nings of  astronomy  came  from  the  Orient,  or  that 
Wise  Men  from  the  East  found  a  Star  as  the  sign  to 
lead  their  journeying.  Night  after  night  the  constel- 
lations rise  undimmed  in  the  clear  sky  and  fairly  urge 
the  beholder  to  close  acquaintance.  A  knowledge  of 


88  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

them  fills  tie  sky  with  friendly  forms  ana  gives  the 
student  a  new  and  lasting  "hobby"  that  may  be  pur- 
sued an/where,  and  kept  through  life.  The  Star  Club 
has  popularized  its  celestial  interests  oy  presenting  to 
the  College  a  pageant  in  three  scenes,  a  "Dream  of  the 
Svn  and  Planets,"  in  which  the  Earth  Dweller  is  trans- 
ported to  the  regions  of  the  sky  and  holds  long  and 
intimate  conversations  with  the  various  heavenly 
bodies.  As  the  final  scene,  the  planets  slant  in  their 
relative  positions,  and  the  Signs  of  the  Zodiac  with 
shields  take  their  places  on  each  side  of  Father  Sun. 

The  Natural  History  Club  has  interests  ranging  all 
the  way  from  the  theory  of  evolution  to  the  names  and 
songs  of  the  common  birds  of  Madras. 

The  Art  Club  not  only  does  out-door  sketching,  but 
has  entered  upon  a  wide  field  in  the  study  of  Indian 
art  and  architecture.  India  is  reviving  a  partly  forgot- 
ten interest  in  her  ancient  arts  and  crafts  and  has 
much  to  offer  the  student,  from  the  wonderful  lines 
of  the  Taj  Mahal  to  the  Ahmadabad  stone  windows 
with  their  lace-like  traceries;  from  the  portraits  of 
Moghal  Emperors  to  the  fine  detail  of  South  India 
temple  carvings.  Study  in  the  Art  Club  means  a  new 
appreciation  of  the  beauty  found  among  one's  own 
people. 

The  Dramatic  and  Musical  Societies  unite  now  end 
then  in  public  entertainments,  such  as  "Comus"  which 
was  given  in  honor  of  the  women  graduates  of  the 
whole  Presidency  at  the  time  of  the  University  Convo- 
cation. The  Society  repertoire  of  plays  given  during 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  89 

the  last  five  years  includes  a  considerable  variety — 
dramatists  so  far  apart  as  Shakespeare  and  Tagore; 
the  old  English  moralities  of  "Everyman"  and  "Eager 
Heart";  the  old  Indian  epic-dramas  of  "Sakuntala" 
and  "Savitri";  together  with  Sheridan's  "Rivals"  and 
scenes  from  "Emma"  and  "Ivanhoe."  The  Musical 
Club  specializes  on  Christmas  carols,  with  which  the 
College  is  wakened  at  four  o'clock  "on  Christmas  day 
in  the  morning." 

The  History  Club  sounds  like  an  organization  of 
research  workers;  on  the  contrary,  its  interests  are 
bound  up  with  the  march  of  current  events  in  India 
and  the  world.  At  the  time  when  India  was  stirred  by 
the  visit  of  the  Duke  of  Connaught  and  the  launching 
of  the  Reform  Government,  this  Club  took  to  itself  the 
rights  of  suffrage,  elected  its  members  to  the  first 
Madras  Legislative  Council,  and  after  the  elections 
were  duly  confirmed  sat  in  solemn  assembly  to  settle 
the  affairs  of  the  Province.  They  have  also  carried 
out  equally  dramatic  representations  of  the  English 
House  of  Lords  and  even  the  League  of  Nations. 

"Lighted  to  The  Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 

Lighten."  ciation  of  the  College  among  its  many 

activities  includes  Bible  classes  in  the  vernacular  which 
bring  together  students  from  the  same  language  areas 
and  after  a  week  of  purely  English  study  and  English 
chapel  service  serve  as  a  link  with  home  life  and  home 
conditions.  Not  only  with  home  on  the  one  side;  on 
the  other  the  Association  ties  them  up  with  wider  in- 


5)0  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

terests,  with  conferences  that  bring  together  students 
from  all  India,  with  activities  that  range  all  the  way 
from  teaching  servants'  children  to  read  and  translat- 
ing Christian  books  into  their  own  vernaculars  to  send- 
ing gifts  of  money  to  a  suffering  student  in  Vienna. 

Social  service  is  carried  on  along  lines  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  pursued  in  Lucknow.  Sunday 
schools,  visits  to  outcaste  villages,  and  lectures  on 
health  and  cleanliness  have  their  place.  A  new  feature 
is  the  dispensing  of  simple  medical  help,  which  not 
only  relieves  the  recipients,  but  teaches  the  students 
what  they  can  do  later  when  in  their  own  homes.  An- 
other distinctive  venture  is  the  "Little  School"  in  the 
college  grounds,  where  volunteer  workers  take  turns 
morning  and  evening  in  teaching  the  neighborhood  chil- 
dren, and  thus  get  their  first  taste  of  the  joys  and  diffi- 
culties of  the  teacher's  profession. 

An  interested  girl  thus  expresses  her  ideas  on  the 
subject  of  social  service.  Her  emphasis  upon  the  posi- 
tive side  of  life  speaks  well  for  her  future  accomplish- 
ment: 

"Though  the  condition  of  the  people  is  deplorable  we 
need  not  despair  of  making  matters  better  for  them. 
Instead  of  giving  the  mere  negative  instructions  that 
they  should  not  drink,  or  be  extravagant  with  their 
money,  or  get  into  the  clutches  of  money  lenders,  we 
can  do  something  positive.  Some  interesting  diver- 
sions could  be  invented  that  would  prevent  men  from 
frequenting  drinking  houses.  With  regard  to  their  ex- 
travagance on  certain  occasions,  we  might  suggest  to 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  91 

them  ways  in  which  they  could  lessen  items  of  expendi- 
ture. To  prevent  their  being  at  the  mercy  of  money 
lenders,  co-operative  societies  may  be  started  in  order 
to  lend  money  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest ;  or  to  supply 
them  with  capital  or  with  tools  in  order  to  start  their 
work. 

"To  remove  the  other  evil  of  ignorance  with  regard 
to  health,  we  may  go  into  the  villages  and  give  them 
practical  lessons  on  cleanliness.  We  could  tell  them  of 
the  value  of  fresh  air  and  give  them  other  needful  in- 
structions. 

"In  doing  social  work  of  this  kind,  there  are  many 
principles  we  ought  to  have  in  mind.  Instead  of  telling 
a  poor  man  with  no  means  of  living  that  he  should  not 
steal  it  would  be  better  to  see  that  he  is  somehow  placed 
beyond  the  reach  of  want.  Another  is  that  instead  of 
merely  imparting  morality  in  negative  form,  it  would  be 
better  to  point  out  to  them  some  positive  way  in  which 
they  could  improve.  More  important  than  any  of  these 
principles  is  that  instead  of  thinking  of  'bestowing 
good'  on  the  people,  it  would  be  more  effective,  if  we 
co-operate  with  them  and  enlist  their  initiative,  thus  en- 
abling them  by  degrees  to  be  fit  to  manage  their  own 
affairs." 

Applied  Certain  parts  of  the  curriculum  also 

Sociology.  tie  up  closely  with  community  life. 

Economics  and  essay  writing  lead  into  fields  of  re- 
search. Essays  and  contributions  to  the  College  mag- 
azine, "The  Sunflower,"  bear  such  titles  as  the  "Social 


92  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

Needs  of  Kottayam  District,"  which  goes  into  the 
causes  of  poverty  and  distress  in  the  writer's  own  lo- 
cality, or  "The  Religion  of  the  People  of  Kandy," 
written  by  a  convert  from  Buddhism  who  knows  from 
her  own  childhood  experience  the  beauties  and  defects 
of  that  great  religious  system. 

An  intercollegiate  essay  prize  was  won  by  a  Chris- 
tian college  girl  who  wrote  on  her  own  home  town, 
"The  Superstitions  and  Customs  of  the  Village  of 
Namakal."  She  writes: 

"A  set  of  villages  would  also  be  seen  where  the 
people  are  very  much  like  the  insects  under  a  buried 
stone,  which  run  underground,  unable  to  see  the  light 
or  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  light.  The  moment  the 
stone  is  turned  up,  so  much  accustomed  are  they  to  live 
in  the  darkness  of  superstition  and  unbelief  that  they 
think  they  would  be  better  off  to  go  on  so,  and  refuse  to 
accept  the  light  rays  of  science,  education,  and  civili- 
zation, which  are  willingly  given  them." 

The  list  of  current  omens  and  superstitions  which 
she  has  unearthed  may  prove  of  interest  to  Western 
readers  who  have  little  idea  of  the  burden  of  taboo 
under  which  the  average  Hindu  passes  his  days.  The 
essayist  says : 

"An  attempt  to  enumerate  these  superstitious  beliefs 
would  be  useless,  but  the  following  would  illustrate  the 
villagers'  deep  regard  for  them.  It  is  a  good  omen  to 
hear  a  bell  ring,  an  ass  bray,  or  a  Brahmini  kite  cry, 
when  starting  out  to  see  a  married  woman  whose  hus- 
band is  alive.  They  believe  it  to  be  an  excellent  omen 


In  the  Cloister's  Studious  Shade 


Miss  Jackson  and  Some  Social  Service  Workers 
SCENES  AT  MADRAS  COLLEGE 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  93 

to  see  a  corpse,  a  bunch  of  flowers,  water,  milk,  a 
toddy  pot,  or  a  washerman  with  dirty  clothes,  while 
setting  out  to  give  any  present  to  her  or  her  husband. 
No  Hindu  man  or  woman  would  set  out  to  visit  a  newly 
married  couple  if  he  or  she  hears  sneezing  while  start- 
ing, or  proceed  on  the  journey  if  he  or  she  hears  the 
wailing  of  a  beggar,  or  happens  to  see  a  Brahmin 
widow,  a  snake,  a  full  oil  pot,  or  a  cat." 

The  College  Many  of  the  students  are  full  of  ideas 
Woman  and  as  to  the  various  places  which  women 
India.  may  fill  in  the  economy  of  the  India 

of  the  future.  Among  the  professions  open  to  women, 
teaching  is  of  course  the  favorite.  Its  opportunities 
are  shown  in  the  following : 

"The  University  women  who,  more  than  any  one 
else,  have  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  education  and  the 
privileges  of  college  life  are  naturally  very  keen  on 
imparting  them  to  the  million  of  their  less  graduate 
sisters.  Almost  every  student  in  a  college  is  now  filled 
with  a  greater  love  and  longing  to  help  the  uneducated 
women.  Thus,  most  of  them  go  out  as  teachers.  Some 
of  them  work  in  their  own  schools,  or  take  up  work 
either  in  a  mission  school  or  a  government  school. 
Some  of  the  graduates  are  now  in  a  position  to  estab- 
lish schools  of  their  own.  The  pay  for  teachers  is 
usually  lower  than  that  earned  by  women  in  other 
positions,  but  the  fact  that  so  many  women  become 
teachers  shows  that  they  care  more  for  service  than 
for  salary,  for  surely  this  is  the  greatest  service  that 
they  as  women  can  give  to  India." 


94  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

Another  student  has  some  ideas  as  to  new  methods 
to  be  used: 

"The  present  method  of  teaching  in  India  is  not  quite 
suitable  to  the  modern  stage  of  children.  Now,  children 
are  very  inquisitive  and  try  to  learn  by  themselves. 
They  cannot  understand  anything  which  is  taught  as 
mere  doctrines.  The  teacher  has  to  draw  her  answers 
from  the  children  and  thus  build  up  her  teaching  on 
the  base  of  their  previous  knowledge.  So  the  educated 
women  have  to  train  themselves  in  schools  where  they 
are  made  fit  to  meet  the  present  standard  of  children." 

Miss  Cornelia  Sorabji  has  shown  by  her  career  what 
a  woman  lawyer  can  do  for  other  women.  A  college 
girl  writes  as  follows  of  the  opportunities  for  service 
that  other  students  might  find  in  the  law : 

"I  have  seen  many  women  in  the  villages,  though 
not  educated,  showing  the  capacities  of  a  good  lawyer. 
I  think  that  women  have  a  special  talent  in  performing 
this  business,  and  hence  would  do  much  better  than 
men.  Tenderness  and  mercy  are  qualities  greatly  re- 
quired in  a  judge  or  magistrate.  Women  are  famous 
for  these  and  so  their  judgments  which  will  be  the 
products  of  justice  tempered  by  mercy  will  be  com- 
mendable. A  man  cannot  understand  so  fully  a 
woman,  the  workings  of  her  mind,  her  thoughts  and 
her  views,  as  a  woman  can;  so  in  order  to  plead  the 
cause  of  women  there  should  be  women  lawyers  who 
could  understand  and  put  their  cases  in  a  very  clear 
light." 

Another  feels  the  need  of  women  in  politics : 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  95 

•'According  to  the  present  system  in  India,  the  gov- 
ernment is  carried  on  by  men  alone.  Thus  women  are 
exclusively  shut  off  from  the  administration  of  the 
country.  The  good  and  bad  results  of  the  government 
affect  men  and  women  alike.  Therefore,  it  is  only  fair 
that  women  also  should  have  an  active  part  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  country.  Women  should  be  given  seats 
in  the  Legislative  Council  where  they  would  have  an 
opportunity  to  listen  to  the  problems  of  the  country 
and  try  to  solve  them. 

"From  ordinary  life  we  see  that  women  are  more 
economical  than  men.  Therefore,  it  would  be  better 
for  the  country  if  women  could  take  a  part  in  economic 
matters.  When  the  rate  of  tax  is  fixed  men  are  likely 
to  decide  it  merely  from  a  consideration  of  their  income 
without  thinking  about  small  expenses.  Women  are 
acquainted  with  every  expense  in  detail.  If  women 
could  take  part  in  economic  affairs,  the  expenditure  of 
a  country  would  be  directed  in  a  better  and  more  care- 
ful way. 

"In  national  and  international  questions  also  women 
can  take  a  part.  Women  are  more  conservative,  sym- 
pathetic, and  kind  than  men.  Great  changes  and 
misery  which  are  not  foreseen  at  all  are  brought  by 
wars  between  different  countries.  Women,  too,  can 
consider  about  the  affairs  of  wars  as  well  as  men. 
Their  sympathetic  and  conservative  views  will  help  the 
people  not  to  plunge  into  needless  wars  and  political 
complications. 

"Women  know  as  well  as,  and  perhaps  more  than 


96  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

men,  the  evils  which  result  from  the  illiteracy  of  people 
and  their  unsanitary  conditions.  Men  spend  much  of 
their  time  outside  home,  while  women  in  their  quiet 
homes  can  see  their  surroundings  and  watch  the  needs 
of  people  around  them.  So  women  can  give  good  ideas 
in  matters  concerning  education  and  sanitation.  In 
this  way,  women  can  influence  the  public  opinion  of  a 
place  and  the  government  of  a  country  depends  much 
on  the  nature  of  public  opinion." 

But  with  all  these  "new  woman  theories"  the  claims 
of  home  are  not  forgotten : 

"Among  the  many  possibilities  opening  out  to 
women,  we  cannot  fail  to  mention  home  life,  though  it 
is  nothing  new. 

"According  to  the  testimony  of  all  history,  the  worth 
and  blessing  of  men  and  nations  depend  in  large  meas- 
ure on  the  character  and  ordering  of  family  life.  'The 
family  is  the  structural  cell  of  the  social  organism.  In 
it  lives  the  power  of  propagation  and  renewal  of  life. 
It  is  the  foundation  of  morality,  the  chief  educational 
institution,  and  the  source  of  nearly  all  real  content- 
ment among  men.'  All  other  questions  sink  into  insig- 
nificance when  the  stability  of  the  family  is  at  stake. 
In  short,  the  family  circle  is  a  world  in  miniature,  with 
its  own  habits,  its  own  interests,  and  its  own  ties, 
largely  independent  of  the  great  world  that  lies  outside. 
When  the  family  is  of  such  great  importance,  how 
much  greater  should  be  the  responsibilities  of  women  in 
the  ordering  of  that  life  ?  Is  it  not  there  in  the  home 
that  we  develop  most  of  our  habits,  our  lines  of  thought 
and  action? 


In  the   Laboratory,   Madras 


Tennis  Champions  with  Cup 
AT  WORK  AND  PLAY 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  97 

"Even  while  keeping  home,  woman  can  do  other 
kinds  of  work.  She  can  help  her  husband  in  his  varied 
activities  by  showing  interest  and  sympathy  in  all  that 
he  does;  she  can  influence  him  in  every  possible  way. 
Then  also  she  may  do  social  and  religious  work,  and 
even  teaching,  though  she  has  to  manage  a  home.  But 
the  work  that  needs  her  keenest  attention  is  in  the  home 
itself,  in  training  up  the  children.  Happiness  and 
cheerfulness  in  the  home  circle  depend  more  or  less  on 
the  radiant  face  of  the  mother,  as  she  performs  her 
simple  tasks,  upon  her  tenderness,  on  her  unwearied 
willingness  to  surpass  all  boundaries  in  love.  She  is  the 
'centre'  of  the  family.  The  physical  and  moral  train- 
ing of  her  children  falls  to  her  lot. 

"Now,  the  developing  of  character  is  no  light  task, 
nor  is  it  the  least  work  that  has  to  be  done.  The  family 
exists  to  train  individuals  for  membership  in  a  large 
group.  In  the  little  family  circle  attention  can  be  con- 
centrated on  a  few  who  in  turn  can  go  out  and  influence 
others.  The  family,  therefore,  is  the  nursery  of  all 
human  virtues  and  powers. 

"In  conclusion,  expressing  the  same  idea  in  stronger 
words,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  whether  India  shall  main- 
tain her  self-government,  when  she  receives  it,  depends 
on  how  far  the  women  are  ready  to  fulfil  the  obliga- 
tions laid  upon  them.  This  is  a  great  question  and  has 
to  be  decided  by  the  educated  women  of  India." 

One  Reformer  Of  the  wealth  of  human  interest  that 
and  What  She  lies  hidden  in  the  life-stories  of  the 
Achieved.  one  hundred  and  ten  students  who 


98  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

make  up  the  College,  who  has  the  insight  to  speak? 
Coming  from  homes  Hindu  or  Christian,  conservative 
or  liberal,  from  the  cosmopolitan  atmosphere  of  the 
modern  Indian  city,  or  the  far  side  of  the  jungle  vil- 
lages, one  might  find  in  their  home  histories,  in  their 
thoughts  and  ambitions  and  desires,  a  composite  pic- 
ture of  the  South  Indian  young  womanhood  of  to-day. 
Countries  as  well  as  individuals  pass  through  periods 
of  adolescence,  of  stress  and  strain  and  the  pains  of 
growth,  when  the  old  is  merging  in  the  new.  The  stu- 
dent generation  of  India  is  passing  through  that  phase 
to-day,  and  no  one  who  fails  to  grasp  that  fact  can  hope 
to  understand  the  psychology  of  the  present  day  stu- 
dent. 

In  Pushpam's  story  it  is  possible  to  see  something 
of  that  clash  of  old  and  new,  of  that  standing  "be- 
tween two  worlds"  that  makes  India's  life  to-day  ad- 
venturous— too  adventurous  at  times  for  the  comfort 
of  the  young  discoverer. 

Pushpam's  home  was  in  the  jungle — by  which  is 
meant  not  the  luxuriant  forests  of  your  imagination, 
but  the  primitive  country  unbroken  by  the  long  ribbon 
of  the  railway,  where  traffic  proceeds  at  the  rate  of  the 
lumbering,  bamboo-roofed  bullock  cart,  and  the  un- 
seemliness of  Western  haste  is  yet  unknown.  Twice  a 
week  the  postbag  comes  in  on  the  shoulders  of  the  lop- 
ing tappal  runner.  Otherwise  news  travels  only 
through  the  wireless  telegraphy  of  bazaar  gossip.  The 
village  struggles  out  toward  the  irrigation  tank  and  the 
white  road,  banyan-shaded,  whose  dusty  length  ties  its 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  99 

life  loosely  to  that  of  the  town  thirty  miles  off  to  the 
eastward.  On  the  other  side  are  palmyra-covered  up- 
lands, and  then  the  Hills. 

The  Good  News  sometimes  runs  faster  than  railway 
and  telegraph.  Here  it  is  so,  for  the  village  has  been 
solidly  Christian  for  fifty  years.  Its  people  are  not  out- 
castes,  but  substantial  landowners,  conservative  in  their 
indigenous  ways,  yet  sending  out  their  sons  and  daugh- 
ters to  school  and  college  and  professional  life. 

Of  that  village  Pushpam's  father  is  the  teacher- 
catechist,  a  gentle,  white-haired  man,  who  long  ago 
set  up  his  rule  of  benevolent  autocracy,  "for  the  good 
of  the  governed." 

"To  this  child  God  has  given  sense ;  he  shall  go  to  the 
high  school  in  the  town."  The  catechist  speaks  with 
the  conviction  of  a  Scotch  Dominie  who  has  discovered 
a  child  "of  parts,"  and  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
parent  is  vain.  The  Dominie's  own  twelve  are  all 
children  "of  parts"  and  all  have  left  the  thatched 
schoolhouse  for  the  education  of  the  city. 

Pushpam  is  the  youngest.  Term  after  term  finds  her 
leaving  the  village,  jogging  the  thirty  miles  of  dust- 
white  road  to  the  town,  spending  the  night  in  the 
crowded  discomfort  of  the  third  class  compartment 
marked  for  "Indian  females."  Vacation  after  vacation 
finds  her  reversing  the  order  of  journeying,  plunging 
from  the  twentieth  century  life  of  college  into  the  vil- 
lage's mediaeval  calm.  There  is  no  lack  of  occupation 
— letters  to  write  for  the  unlearned  of  the  older  gener- 
ation to  their  children  far  afield,  clerks  and  writers 


100  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

and  pastors  in  distant  parts;  there  are  children  to 
coach  for  coming  examinations;  there  are  sore  eyes 
to  treat,  and  fevers  to  reduce. 

One  Christmas  Pushpam  returns  as  usual,  yet  not  as 
usual,  for  her  capable  presence  has  lost  its  customary 
calm.  She  is  "anxious  and  troubled  about  many 
things,"  or  is  it  about  one  ? 

Social  unrest  has  dominated  college  thinking  this 
last  term,  focussing  its  avenging  eyes  upon  that  Dowry 
System  which  works  debt  and  eventual  ruin  in  many 
a  South  Indian  home.  Pushpam  has  seen  the  family 
struggles  that  have  accompanied  the  marriages  of  her 
older  sisters ;  the  "cares  of  the  world"  that  have  pressed 
until  all  the  joy  of  days  that  should  have  been  festal 
was  lost  in  the  counting  out  of  rupees.  In  neighbor 
homes  she  has  seen  rejoicing  at  the  birth  of  a  son,  as 
the  bringer  of  prosperity,  and  grief,  hardly  concealed, 
at  the  adversity  of  a  daughter's  advent.  Unchristian? 
Yes ;  but  not  for  the  lack  of  the  milk  of  human  kind- 
ness ;  rather  from  the  incubus  of  an  evil  social  system, 
inherited  from  Hindu  ancestors. 

Pushpam's  father  is  growing  old;  lands  and  jewels 
have  shrunk.  Married  sons  and  daughters  are  already 
gathering  and  saving  for  the  future  of  their  own  young 
daughters.  Three  thousand  rupees  are  demanded  of 
Pushpam  in  the  marriage  market.  The  thought  of  it 
is  marring  the  peace  of  her  father's  face  and  breaking 
his  sleep  of  nights.  But  Pushpam  has  news  to  impart, 
"Father,  I  have  something  to  say.  It  will  hurt  you,  but 
I  must  speak.  It  is  the  first'time  that  I,  your  daughter, 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  ALLIANCE  101 

have  even  disobeyed  your  wishes,  but  this  time  it  must 
be. 

"All  this  college  term  we  girls  have  been  thinking 
and  talking  of  our  marriage  system  and  its  evils.  Hus- 
bands are  bought  in  the  market,  and  in  these  war  years 
they,  like  everything  else,  are  high.  A  man  thinks  not 
of  the  girl  who  will  make  his  home,  but  of  the  rupees 
she  will  bring  to  his  father's  coffers.  Marriage  means 
not  love,  but  money.  My  classmates  and  I  have  talked 
and  written  and  thought.  Now  three  of  us  have  made 
one  another  a  solemn  promise.  Our  parents  shall  give 
no  dowries  for  us.  We  have  no  fear  of  remaining  un- 
married ;  we  can  earn  our  way  as  we  go  and  find  our 
happiness  in  work.  Or  if  there  are  men  who  care  for 
us,  and  not  for  the  rupees  we  bring,  let  them  ask  for 
us ;  we  will  consider  such  marriages,  but  no  other.  Do 
not  protest,  Father,  for  our  minds  are  made  up." 

The  old  man,  for  years  autocrat  of  the  village,  bows 
to  the  will  of  his  youngest  child,  fearing  the  jeers  of 
relatives,  yet  unable  to  withstand. 

No,  Pushpam  did  not  remain  single.  In  men's  col- 
leges the  same  ferment  is  going  on,  and  when  a  suitor 
came  he  said,  "I  want  you  for  yourself,  not  for  the  gold 
that  you  might  bring."  He  married  Pushpam,  and 
their  joy  of  Christian  service  is  not  shadowed  by  the 
financial  distress  brought  upon  the  father's  house. 

Mary  Smith  asked  to  be  shown  the  justification  of 
college  education  for  Indian  girls.  Is  it  good?  The 
College  of  the  Sunflower  has  its  home  in  dignified  and 
seemly  buildings  set  in  a  tropical  garden.  Does  its 


102  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

beauty  draw  students  away  from  the  world  of  active 
life,  or  send  them  with  fresh  strength  to  share  its 
struggles.  Pushpam  has  given  one  answer.  Another 
one  may  find  in  the  college  report  of  1921  with  its 
register  of  graduates.  Name  after  name  rolls  out  its 
story  of  busy  lives — married  women,  who  are  house- 
makers  and  also  servants  of  the  public  weal;  govern- 
ment inspectresses  of  schools,  who  tour  around  "the 
district,"  bringing  new  ideas  and  encouragement  to 
isolated  schools;  teachers  and  teachers,  and  yet  more 
teachers,  in  government  and  mission  schools,  and 
schools  under  private  management.  Only  six  years  of 
existence,  and  yet  the  Sunflower  has  opened  so  wide, 
the  Lamp  has  lighted  so  many  candles  in  dim  corners. 
Will  the  Mary  Smiths  of  America  do  their  part  that 
the  next  six  years  may  be  bigger  and  better  than  the 
last? 


The  spirit  of  Madras  Students  is  shown  in  the  following  ex- 
tracts from  personal  letters  written  to  former  teachers : 

FROM  A  GRADUATE  OF  MADRAS  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE 

"Last  week  we  had  the  special  privilege  of  hearing  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Annett,  of  India  Sunday  School  Union.  The  last  day  Mr.  Annett 
showed  how  we  can  lead  our  children  to  Christ  and  make  them  accept 
Christ  as  their  Master.  That  is  the  aim  of  religious  education.  My 
heart  thrilled  within  me  when  I  heard  Mr.  Annett  in  his  last  lecture 
confirm  what  I  had  thought  out  as  principles  in  teaching  and  training 
the  young,  and  I  found  my  eyes  wet.  But  the  very  faith  which 
Jesus  had  in  people  and  which  triumphs  over  all  impossibilities  I  am 
trying  to  have.  I  have  patiently  turned  to  the  girls  and  am  trying  to 
help  them  in  their  lives.  The  Christ  power  in  me  is  revealing  to  me 
many  things  since  I  surrendered  to  Him  my  will.  He  is  showing  me 
what  mighty  works  one  can  do  through  intercessory  prayer  which  I 
try  to  do  with  many  failings. 

"Politics  have  lately  been  very  interesting  to  me.  Rather  I  hav; 
been  forced  to  enter  in.  You  will  have  read  or  heard  of  the  new 
movement  in  India  that  sprang  up  early  in  September.  Gandhi  is  the 
leader.  I  have  some  clippings  to  send  you.  It  is  not  about  that  I  wish 
to  write,  but  about  the  remarkable  way  India  is  repressing  the  move- 
ment. The  Panjah,  the  province  for  which  sympathy  is  called  for  and 
the  one  which  affords  the  cause  for  non-co-operation,  has  thrown  up 
Gandhi's  scheme  and  her  sons  are  standing  for  council  elections.  No 
Indian  can  help  being  thrilled  over  the  nominations  and  elections  for 
legislative  councils  and  councils  of  state,  which  are  to  assemble  in 
January  according  to  the  Reform  Act.  Our  girls  are  taking  a  keen 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  country  and  earnestly  praying  for  her. 

"This  is  the  week  of  prayer  of  the  Y.  W.  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  I  am  sure 
you  are  remembering  us, — the  young  women  of  India  and  our  girla 
who  are  to  lay  out  the  future  in  India;  also  our  young  men  and  boys. 

"The  Student  Federation  has  its  conference  in  P during  Christ- 
mas, and  four  of  our  college  students  are  going.  If  only  the  men  would 
be  open  hearted  and  less  prejudiced  and  brave  enough  to  stand  alone 
and  reform  society.  I  think  the  time  is  coming. 

"Isn't  it  strange  that  you  should  also  feel  the  thirst  for  Bible  study 
just  as  I  am  doing  here.  I  never  felt  the  lack  of  Scriptural  knowl- 
edge as  now  while  I  teach  our  girls." 


103 


EXTRACTS   FROM   A   TEACHER'S   JOURNAL   IN 
MADRAS  COLLEGE 

November  12,  1921. 

We  had  nine  graduates  to  garland  last  night  and  should 
have  had  more  if  Convocation  had  followed  closely  on  their 
success  in  April.  But  now  one  is  at  Somerville  College, 
Oxford  (we  have  five  old  students  in  England  now  and  one 
in  America),  one  at  her  husband's  home  in  Bengal,  one 
serving  in  Pundita  Ramabai's  Widows'  Home  at  Mukti  near 
Poona,  and  three  kept  away  by  some  duty  in  their  families. 
Among  our  nine  were  two  who  had  been  among  our  very 
earliest  students;  in  fact,  one  bears  the  very  first  name  en- 
tered on  our  student  roll  in  April,  1915,  when  we  were  look- 
ing round  in  trembling  hope  to  see  whether  any  students  at 
all  would  entrust  themselves  to  our  inexperienced  hands. 
These  two,  of  course,  left  some  years  ago,  but  have  since 
taken  the  teachers'  degree,  the  Licentiate  in  Teaching,  for 
which  they  have  prepared  themselves  by  private  study  while 
serving  in  schools. 

This  L.T.  is  a  University  degree  open  to  graduates  in 
Arts  only,  and  a  B.A.,  L.T.,  is  regarded  as  a  teacher  fully 
equipped  for  the  highest  posts  in  schools.  The  preparation 
for  it  has  been  carried  on  hitherto  chiefly  at  a  Government 
Teachers'  College,  where  the  few  women  students,  though 
very  courteously  treated,  have  naturally  been  at  a  great  dis- 
advantage among  more  than  a  hundred  men.  Such  of  our 
graduates  as  have  spent  the  required  year  there  have  been 
considerably  disappointed,  feeling  that  their  work  has  been 
too  easy  and  too  theoretical.  In  any  case  it  is  impossible 
that  much  practical  work  could  be  found  for  so  large  a 
number  of  students,  and  the  belief  is  growing  that  the  ideal 
training  college  is  a  small  one.  That  it  must  be  a  Chris- 
tian one  is  from  our  point  of  view  still  more  important. 
The  women  B.A.,  L.T.'s  will  hold  positions  of  greater  in- 
fluence than  any  other  class  in  South  India.  They  will  be 
Government  Inspectresses,  Heads  of  Middle  Schools  and 
High  Schools,  lecturers  in  Training  Colleges,  in  fact,  the 
sources  of  the  inspiration  which  will  permeate  every  region 
of  women's  education.  Before  long  the  missions  will  be 
unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  increase  of  available 
pupils  for  girls'  schools.  Their  success  in  originating  and 
fostering  the  idea  of  educating  girls  has  now  produced  a 

104 


MADRAS  COLLEGE  105 

situation  with  which  we  cannot  personally  cope,  but  which 
we  can  indirectly  control  by  concentrating  effort  at  the  most 
vital  spot,  that  is  the  training  of  the  highest  rank  of  women 
teachers.  These  will  set  the  tone  and,  to  a  great  extent, 
determine  the  quality  of  the  women  teachers  who  have 
lower  qualifications,  and  these  will  have  in  their  hands  the 
training  of  ever-increasing  numbers  of  girl  pupils  and  will 
hand  on  the  ideals  which  they  have  themselves  received. 

It  was  an  honor  which  we  felt  very  deeply  when  the 
Missionary  Educational  Council  of  South  India  entrusted  to 
the  council  of  our  College  the  task  of  inaugurating  an  L.T. 
College  for  Women,  and  we  have  been  very  busy  about  it. 

December  15,  1921. 

More  than  a  month  has  passed  since  I  began  the  Journal 
and  I  am  now  sitting  in  the  junior  B.A.  class-room  watching 
over  nineteen  students  (the  twentieth  happens  to  be  absent) 
who  are  writing  their  terminal  examination  papers.  I  was 
a  false  weather-prophet;  rain  did  not  come,  and  still  keeps 
away.  Instead  there  is  a  high  cool  wind,  and  every  one  of 
these  students  is  firmly  holding  down  her  paper  with  the 
left  hand  while  her  fountain  pen  (they  all  have  fountain 
pens)  skims  all  too  rapidly  over  the  page.  The  great  prin- 
ciple of  answering  an  examination  paper  is  never  to  waste 
a  moment  on  thought.  If  you  do  not  know  what  to  say  next, 
repeat  what  you  said  before  until  a  new  idea  strikes  you. 
As  it  is  not  necessary  to  dip  the  pen  in  ink  it  should  never 
leave  the  page.  This  method  enables  them  to  produce  small 
pamphlets  which  they  hand  in  with  a  happy  sense  of  achieve- 
ment, but  the  examiner's  heart  sinks  as  she  gathers  up  the 
volumes  of  hasty  manuscript. 

Sometimes,  however,  the  answers  err  on  the  side  of  con- 
ciseness. "We  believe  them  because  we  cannot  prove  them," 
was  the  truthful  reply  of  a  student  in  Physics  to  the  ques- 
tion, "Why  do  we  believe  Newton's  Laws  of  Motion?"  Or 
sometimes  an  essential  transition  is  omitted ;  "At  the  period 
of  the  Roman  conquest  the  Greeks  were  politically  hopeless, 
economically  bankrupt,  and  morally  corrupt.  They  became 
teachers."  But  sometimes  it  is  the  caprice  of  the  English 
language  which  betrays  them.  "The  events  of  the  15th 
century  which  most  affected  philosophic  thought  were  the 
founding  of  America  and  the  founding  of  the  Universe." 
Occasionally  they  administer  an  unconscious  rebuke.  I  was 
just  starting  out  to  give  an  address  at  a  week-night  evening 
service  from  the  chancel  steps  of  a  neighboring  church,  and 


106  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

having  a  minute  or  two  to  spare  I  took  up  one  of  my  120 
Scripture  papers  and  read,  "St.  Paul's  chief  difficulty  with 
the  Corinthians  was  that  women  insisted  on  speaking  in 
church.  It  is  wicked  for  women  to  talk  in  church." 

The  nineteen  students  before  me  are  very  representative 
of  our  student  body,  which  now  numbers  one  hundred  and 
thirty.  Eleven  are  writing  on  Constitutional  History,  two 
on  Philosophy,  four  on  Zoology  and  two  (a  young  Hindu 
married  girl  and  a  Syrian  Christian)  on  Malayalam  literature. 
Ten  of  them  speak  Tamil,  eight  Malayalam,  and  one  Telugu. 
They  vary  in  rank  from  high  official  circles  to  very  low 
origins,  but  most  belong  to  what  we  should  call  the  profes- 
sional classes.  All  are  barefooted  and  wear  the  Indian  dress, 
which  in  the  case  of  the  Syrians  is  always  white. 

Through  the  open  door  I  look  into  the  library  where  the 
fifty-three  new  students  of  this  year  are  writing  an  English 
paper.  There  are  eight  Hindus  and  one  European  among 
them,  also  two  students  from  Ceylon,  two  from  Hyderabad, 
and  one,  differing  widely  from  the  rest  in  dress  and  facial 
type,  from  Burma.  The  lecturer  in  charge  is  Miss  Chamber- 
lain, the  daughter  of  our  invaluable  secretary  in  America. 
She  arrived  only  three  weeks  ago  to  take  the  place  of  Miss 
Sarber  who  has  started  on  her  furlough  and  already  the  dig- 
nity of  the  philosopher  and  psychologist  is  mingling  with  the 
gaiety  which  makes  her  table  a  favorite  place  for  students. 

The  debate  on  the  conscience  clause*  which  took  place  in 
the  new  Legislative  Assembly  in  November  shows  that  the 
party  now  in  power,  the  non-Brahmin  middle-class,  realizes 
the  value  to  the  country  of  Christian  education.  Man  after 
man  rose  to  express  his  gratitude  to  the  Christian  College  and 
to  point  out  that  missionaries  alone  had  brought  education 
to  low-caste  and  out-caste  people.  The  proposal  was  re- 
jected by  61  votes  to  13,  a  most  unexpected  and  happy  event. 

One  proposal,  perfectly  well  meant,  was  made  at  the 
Government  Committee  on  Education  which  aroused  great 
indignation  among  our  students.  It  was  that  various  con- 
cessions should  be  made  to  the  supposed  weakness  of  women 
students  and  that  the  pass  mark  in  examinations  should  be 
lowered  for  them.  As  the  Principals  of  both  the  Women's 
Colleges  opposed  the  suggestion,  it  was  withdrawn,  but  this 
little  incident  shows  two  things,  the  sympathetic  feeling 
of  men  toward  the  studies  of  women,  and  the  distance  that 
women  have  travelled  since  the  time  when  they  would 
themselves  have  requested  such  concessions. 

*Opposing  the  study  of  the  Bible  in  our  schools. 


MADRAS  COLLEGE  107 

In  the  recent  agitation  in  favor  of  Nationalism  finding 
that  the  only  constructive  advice  given  was  to  devote 
themselves  to  Indian  music,  to  the  spinning  wheel,  which 
is  Mr.  Gandhi's  great  remedy  for  social  and  political  ills, 
and  to  social  service,  I  did  all  that  I  could  to  promote  these 
ends.  I  asked  the  Senior  Student  to  collect  the  names 
of  all  who  wished  to  learn  to  play  an  Indian  instrument,  I 
presented  the  College  with  a  pound  of  raw  cotton  and  a 
spinning  wheel  of  the  type  recommended  by  Mr.  Gandhi,  and 
the  social  service  begun  some  months  before  was  continued. 
This  last  consists  of  our  expedition  led  by  Miss  Jackson, 
which  twice  a  week  visits  an  unpleasant  little  village  not  far 
from  our  gates.  The  students  wash  the  children,  which  is 
not  at  all  a  delightful  task,  attend  to  sore  eyes  and  matted 
hair  and  teach  them  games  and  songs,  and  chat  with  the 
village  women  about  household  hygiene  and  how  to  keep 
out  of  debt.  One  of  our  Sunday  Schools  is  in  this  village, 
too,  so  by  this  time  the  students  are  welcome  visitors,  and 
whether  they  do  much  good  or  not,  they  learn  a  great  deal 
of  sobering  truth.  Of  course,  only  a  few  can  go  at  a  time, 
but  others  find  some  scope  in  the  other  Sunday  Schools  and 
in  the  little  Day  School  which  Miss  Brockway  instituted  for 
the  children  of  our  servants.  This  last  means  real  self- 
denial,  as  the  work  must  be  done  every  day.  Still,  it  re- 
mains one  of  our  greatest  problems  to  find  channels  for 
the  spirit  of  service  which  we  try  to  inspire,  and  without 
which  the  current  of  their  patriotism  may  become  stagnant. 

But  I  am  being  disappointed  about  the  music  and  the 
spinning  wheel.  Not  one  student  was  willing  to  undergo  the 
toilsome  practice  of  learning  an  instrument,  and  though  the 
spinning  wheel  was  received  with  enthusiasm  the  pound  of 
cotton  has  hardly  diminished  at  all.  Nor  will  they  take  the 
trouble  to  read  the  newspapers  regularly.  So  that  they 
might  not  feel  that  too  British  a  view  of  events  was  pre- 
sented to  them  they  are  supplied  with  some  papers  of  a 
very  critical  tone,  but  I  need  not  have  feared  the  risk,  the 
papers  remain  unread.  They  much  prefer  the  medium  of 
speech,  and  are  keenly  interested  in  almost  any  topic  on 
which  we  invite  an  attractive  speaker  to  give  an  address, 
but  they  do  not  follow  it  up  by  reading.  They  are  decidedly 
fonder  of  books  than  they  were,  and  use  the  library  more, 
but  their  taste  is  for  the  better  kind  of  domestic  fiction  more 
than  for  anything  else.  There  is  one  important  exception, 
they  all  love  Shakespeare  and  there  is  no  one  whom  they 
so  delight  to  act.  Whenever  they  invite  us  to  an  entertain- 


108  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

ment,  which  they  do  on  many  and  various  occasions,  we 
are  fairly  sure  of  seeing  a  few  scenes  of  Shakespeare  acted 
much  better  than  I  have  ever  seen  English  girls  of  their 
age  act. 

The  students  have  been  collecting  a  fund  for  our  new 
Science  building,  a  great  and  beautiful  enterprise,  which, 
also,  is  still  in  its  proper  stage.  The  drawing  of  plans  so 
large  and  detailed  has  occupied  many  months.  We  are 
looking  to  America  for  the  generous  gift  which  shall  bring 
these  plans  into  actuality,  but  help  from  other  sources  is 
welcome,  too,  and  particularly  help  from  the  students.  They 
have  made  many  efforts  and  reached  a  sum  of  more  than 
Rs.  500.  Their  most  important  undertaking  was  a  perform- 
ance of  "Everyman"  most  solemnly  and  beautifully  carried 
out  before  an  audience  of  our  women  friends,  and  there 
was  also  a  dramatic  version  written  by  one  of  the  students 
of  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son  and  performed  before  the 
college  only.  This  last  was  remarkable  in  its  adaptation  of 
the  story  to  Indian  conditions  and  for  the  characteristic  in- 
troduction of  a  mother  and  a  sister. 


THE  OLD  INDIA 
No  Chance — No  Hope 


"If  she  have  sent  her  servants  in  our  pain, 
If  she  have  fought  with  Death  and  dulled  his  sword, 
If  she  have  given  back  our  sick  again 
And  to  the  breast  the  weakling  lips  restored, 
Is  it  a  little  thing  that  she  has  wrought? 
Then  Life  and  Death  and  Motherhood  be  nought." 

Kipling's  "Song  of  the  Women" 

The  Medical  School  at  Vellore  is  still  without  a  per- 
manent home  and  is  lodged  in  scattered  buildings — 
without  a  permanent  staff  except  for  two  or  three 
heroic  figures  who  are  performing  each  the  work  of 
several — without  a  certainty  of  a  regular  income  in 
any  way  equivalent  to  its  needs — but  it  has  an  enthu- 
siastic band  of  students  and  it  has  Dr.  Ida  Scudder, 
and  so  the  balance  is  on  the  right  side. 


109 


CHAPTER  FIVE 
SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL 

"The  Long  Trail  Who  that  has  read  "Kim"  will  ever 
A-Winding."  forget  Kipling's  picture  of  the  Grand 
Trunk  Road,  with  its  endless  panorama  of  beggars, 
Brahmans,  Lamas,  and  talkative  old  women  on  pil- 
grimage ?  Such  roads  cover  India's  plains  with  a  net- 
work of  interlacing  lines,  for  one  of  Britain's  achieve- 
ments on  India's  behalf  has  been  her  system  of 
metalled  roads,  defying  alike  the  dust  of  the  dry 
season  and  the  floods  of  the  monsoon. 

One  such  road  I  have  in  mind,  a  road  leading  from 
the  old  fortress  town  of  Vellore  through  twenty-three 
miles  of  fertile  plain,  to  Gudiyattam,  at  the  foot  of  the 
Eastern  Ghats.  It  is  just  a  South  Indian  "up  country" 
road,  skirting  miles  of  irrigated  rice  fields,  gold-green 
in  their  beginnings,  gold-brown  in  the  days  of  ripen- 
ing and  reaping.  It  winds  past  patches  of  sugar 
cane  and  cocoanut  palm ;  then  half  arid  uplands,  where 
goats  and  lean  cattle  search  for  grass  blades  that  their 
predecessors  have  overlooked ;  then  the  bizarre  shapes 
of  the  ghats,  wide  spaces  open  to  the  play  of  sun  and 
wind  and  rain,  of  passing  shadow  and  sunset  glory. 
They  are  among  the  breathing  spaces  of  earth,  which 
no  man  hath  tamed  or  can  tame. 

An  Indian  An  ordinary  road  it  is,  and  passing 

"Flivver."  over    it    the    ordinary    procession — 

heavy-wheeled   carts  drawn  by   humped,   white  bul- 

110 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  111 

locks;  crowded  jutkas  whose  tough,  little  ponies  dis- 
appear in  a  rattle  of  wheels  and  a  cloud  of  dust;  wed- 
dings, funerals,  and  festivals  with  processions  gay  or 
mournful  as  the  case  may  be.  One  feature  alone  dis- 
tinguishes this  road  from  others  of  its  kind;  once  a 
week  its  dusty  length  is  traversed  by  a  visitant  from 
the  West,  a  "Tin  Lizzie,"  whose  unoccupied  spaces  are 
piled  high  with  medicine  chests  and  instrument  cases. 
Once  a  week  the  Doctor  passes  by,  and  the  country- 
side turns  out  to  meet  her. 

When  the  Doctor  Where  do  they  come  from,  the  pa- 
Passes  by.  thetic  groups  that  continually  bring 
the  little  Ford  to  a  halt?  For  long  stretches  the  road 
passes  through  apparently  uninhabited  country,  yet 
here  they  are,  the  lame,  the  halt,  and  the  blind,  as 
though  an  unseen  city  were  pouring  out  the  dregs  of 
its  slums.  Back  a  mile  from  the  road,  among  the 
tamarind  trees,  stands  one  village;  at  the  edge  of  the 
rice  fields  huddles  another.  The  roofs  of  thatch  or 
earth-brown  tiles  seem  an  indistinguishable  part  of  the 
landscape,  but  they  are  there,  each  with  its  quota  of 
child-birth  pain,  its  fever-burnings,  its  germ-borne 
epidemics  where  sanitation  is  unknown,  its  final  pangs 
of  dissolution.  But  once  a  week  the  Doctor  passes  by. 
What  do  she  and  her  attendants  treat?  Sore  eyes 
and  scabies  and  all  the  dirt-carried  minor  ailments  that 
infect  the  village ;  malaria  from  the  mosquitoes  that 
swarm  among  the  rice  fields ;  aching  teeth  to  be  pulled ; 
dreaded  epidemics  of  cholera  or  typhoid,  small  pox  or 


112  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

plague.  Now  and  then  the  back  seat  is  cleared  of  its 
impedimenta  and  turned  into  the  fraction  of  an  am- 
bulance to  convey  a  groaning  patient  to  a  clean  bed  in 
the  hospital  ward.  Once  at  least  a  makeshift  operating 
table  has  been  set  up  under  the  shade  of  a  roadside 
banyan  tree,  and  the  Scriptural  injunction,  "If  thy  foot 
offend  thee,  cut  it  off,"  carried  out  then  and  there  to 
the  saving  of  a  life. 

At  dark  the  plucky  little  Ford  plods  gallantly  back  to 
the  home  base,  its  occupants  with  faded  garlands, 
whose  make-up  varies  with  the  seasons — yellow  chrys- 
anthemums with  purple  everlasting  tassels  at  Christ- 
mas time ;  in  the  dry,  hot  days  of  spring  pink  and  white 
oleanders  from  the  water  channels  among  the  hills; 
during  the  rains  the  heavy  fragrance  of  jasmine.  All 
the  flowers  do  their  brave  best  for  the  day  when  the 
Doctor  passes  by. 

Where  no  But  wnat  °f  the  roads  on  which  the 

Doctor  Passes  Doctor  never  passes?  From  Vel- 
by.  lore's  fortress-crowned  hills  they 

stretch  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  and  toward  all 
the  intermediate  points  of  the  compass.  Every  city  of 
India  forms  such  a  nucleus  for  the  country  around. 
Amid  the  wheat  fields  of  the  Punjab,  under  the  tama- 
rinds of  the  Ganges  plain,  among  the  lotus  pools  and 
bamboo  clusters  of  the  Bengal  deltas,  and  on  the  black 
cotton  fields  of  the  Deccan  are  the  roads  and  the  vil- 
lages, the  villages  and  the  roads.  Some  mathemati- 
cally minded  writer  once  computed  that,  if  Christ  in 


Kamala 

(Lotus 

Flower), 

Winner  of 

The  Gold 

Medal  in 

Anatomy  in 

Vellore 

Medical 

School 


t 


A  Little 
Lost  One — 
What    Will 
Such  Girls 
Do  for  India? 


CONTRASTS 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  113 

the  days  of  His  flesh  had  started  on  a  tour  among  the 
villages  of  India,  visiting  one  each  day,  to-day  in  the 
advancing  years  of  the  twentieth  century  many  would 
yet  be  waiting,  unenlightened  and  unvisited.  Few 
have  been  visited  by  any  modern  follower  of  the  Great 
Physician.  Who  can  compute  their  sum  total  of 
human  misery,  of  preventable  disease,  of  undernour- 
ishment, of  pain  that  might  all  too  easily  be  alleviated  ? 

A  Problem  in  Was  it,  one  wonders,  the  memory  of 
Multiplication.  the  Gudiyattam  road,  and  those  like 
it  in  nameless  thousands,  that  burned  deep  into  Dr. 
Ida  Scudder's  heart  and  brain  the  desire  to  found  a 
Medical  School,  where  the  American  Doctor  might 
multiply  herself  and  reproduce  her  life  of  skilful  and 
devoted  service  in  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  Indian 
women  physicians?  It  is  the  only  way  that  the  mes- 
sage of  the  Good  Physician,  His  healing  for  soul  and 
body,  may  penetrate  those  village  fastnesses  of  dirt, 
disease,  and  ignorance.  One  hundred  and  sixty  women 
doctors  at  present  try  to  minister  to  India's  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  millions  of  women,  shut  out  by  imme- 
morial custom  from  men's  hospitals  and  from  physi- 
cians who  are  men.  "What  are  these  among  so  many  ?" 
What  can  they  ever  be  except  as  they  may  multiply 
themselves  in  the  persons  of  Indian  messengers  of 
healing? 

SmaU  And  so,  in  July,  1918,  the  Vellore 

Beginnings.  Medical   School  was   opened,   under 


114  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

the  fostering  care  of  four  contributing  Mission  Boards, 
and  with  the  approval  and  aid  of  the  Government  of 
Madras.  "Go  ahead  if  you  can  find  six  students  who 
have  completed  the  High  School  Course,"  said  the  in- 
terested Surgeon  General.  Instead  of  six,  sixty-nine 
applied;  seventeen  were  accepted;  and  fourteen  not 
only  survived  the  inevitable  weeding  out  process,  but 
brought  to  the  school  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  the 
unheard  of  distinction  of  one  hundred  per  cent,  of 
passes  in  the  Government  examination.  That  famous 
first  class  is  now  in  its  Senior  Year,  and  by  the  time 
this  book  comes  from  the  press  will  be  scattering  it- 
self among  thirteen  centres  of  help  and  health. 

And  so,  in  rented  buildings,  the  Medical  School 
started  life.  If  ever  an  institution  passed  its  first  year 
in  a  hand-to-mouth  existence,  this  one  has.  Short  of 
funds  save  as  mercifully  provided  by  private  means; 
short  of  doctors  for  the  staff;  short  of  buildings  in 
which  to  house  its  increasing  student  body,  for  it  has 
grown  from  fourteen  to  sixty-seven ;  short,  in  fine,  of 
everything  needed  except  faith  and  enthusiasm  and 
hard  work  on  the  part  of  its  founders,  it  has  yet  gone 
on;  the  girls  have  been  housed,  classes  have  been 
taught,  examinations  passed,  and  the  first  class  is  ready 
to  go  out  into  the  world  of  work. 

Just  here  perhaps  one  brief  explanation  should  be 
made.  These  girls  will  not  be  doctors  in  the  narrowly 
technical  sense,  for  the  Government  of  India  reserves 
the  doctor's  degree  for  such  students  as  have  first 
taken  a  college  diploma  and  then  on  top  of  it  a  still 


FIRST    BUILDING    AT    NEW    MEDICAL    SCHOOL,    VEL- 
LORE,   WHICH   IS   HOUSING   OUR   STUDENTS 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  115 

more  demanding  medical  course  of  five  years.  These 
students  will  receive  the  degree  of  Licensed  Medical 
Practitioner  (L.M.P.)  which  authorizes  them  to  prac- 
tise medicine  and  surgery  and  even  to  be  in  charge  of 
a  hospital.  The  full  college  may  come,  we  hope,  not 
many  years  hence,  when  funds  become  available. 
Meantime,  this  school  will  year  by  year  be  turning  out 
its  quota  of  medical  workers  whose  usefulness  cannot 
be  over-estimated. 

A  Visit  to  Let  us  pay  a  visit  to  the  School  and 

Vellore.  see  it  as  it  is  in  its  present  state  of 

makeshift.  Since  its  beginning  it  has  dwelt,  like  Paul 
the  prisoner,  "in  its  own  hired  house,"  but  Paul's 
epistles  tell  of  no  such  uncertainty  in  his  tenure  of  his 
rented  dwelling,  as  that  which  has  afflicted  this  institu- 
tion. The  housing  shortage  which  has  distressed  New 
York  has  reached  even  to  Vellore.  Two  rented  bunga- 
lows were  lost,  and,  as  an  emergency  measure,  the 
future  Nurses'  Home  was  erected  in  great  haste  on  the 
town  site  and  at  once  utilized  as  a  dormitory  with  some 
rooms  set  aside  for  lectures  as  well. 

Corpses— and  Let  us  first  pay  a  visit  to  "Pentland," 
Children.  the  one  remaining  "hired  house,"  in 

which  the  Freshmen  have  their  home  with  Dr.  Mary 
Samuel,  the  Indian  member  of  the  staff,  as  their  house 
mother.  Just  behind  it  is  the  thatched  shed,  carefully 
walled  in,  which  serves  as  the  dissecting  room.  To  the 
uninitiated  it  is  a  place  of  gruesome  smells  and  sights, 


116  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

for  cadavers,  whole  or  in  fragments,  litter  the  tables. 
The  casual  visitor  sympathizes  with  the  Hindu  student 
who  confides  to  you  that  during  her  first  days  of  work 
in  the  dissecting  room  she  could  only  sleep  when  firmly 
flanked  by  a  friend  on  each  side  of  her  "to  keep  off  the 
spirits  that  walk  by  night."  After  a  few  weeks  of  ex- 
perience, however,  the  fascinating  search  for  nerve  and 
muscle,  tendon,  vein,  and  artery  becomes  the  dominat- 
ing state  of  consciousness,  and  the  scientific  spirit  ex- 
cludes all  resentment  at  the  disagreeable. 

Pentland  Compound  possesses  another  feature  in 
pleasing  contrast  to  the  dissecting  shed.  As  you  come 
away  from  a  session  there  and  close  the  door  of  the 
enclosing  wall,  from  the  opposite  end  of  the  com- 
pound comes  the  sound  of  children's  voices  in  play. 
There  in  a  comfortable  Indian  cottage  lives  the  jolly 
family  of  the  Children's  Home.  They  are  a  merry, 
well-nourished  collection  of  waifs  and  strays,  of  all 
ancestries,  Hindu,  Muhammadan,  and  Christian,  mostly 
gathered  in  through  the  wards  of  the  Mission  Hospi- 
tals. Only  an  experienced  social  worker  could  estimate 
what  such  a  home  means  in  the  prevention  of  future 
disease,  beggary,  and  crime.  It  is  good  for  the  medical 
students  to  live  in  close  neighborliness  with  this  bit  of 
actual  service.  One  student  in  writing  of  her  future 
plans  mentions  that,  as  an  "avocation"  in  the  chinks  of 
her  hospital  work,  she  plans  to  raise  private  funds  and 
found  a  little  orphanage  all  her  own ! 

Early  Rising.         Not  far  from  Pentland  are  the  new 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  117 

buildings  of  Voorhees  College  belonging  to  the  Arcot 
Mission  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  For  the 
present,  the  Medical  School  has  the  loan  of  its  lecture 
rooms  and  laboratories  in  the  early  morning  hours  be- 
fore the  boys'  classes  begin.  That  means  seven  o'clock 
classes,  and  previous  to  that  for  most  of  the  students 
a  mile  walk  from  the  town  dormitory.  Here  is  the 
Chemistry  Laboratory.  Freshmen  toil  over  the  puz- 
zling behavior  of  atoms  and  electrons,  while  in  lecture 
rooms  the  ear  of  the  uninstructed  visitor  is  puzzled  by 
the  technical  vocabularies  of  the  classes  in  anatomy 
and  surgery,  and  one  wonders  how  the  Indian  student 
ever  achieves  this  vast  amount  of  information  through 
the  difficult  medium  of  a  foreign  tongue. 

In  Hospital  Next  in  our  path  of  visitation  comes 

Wards.  Schell   Hospital,   where  the  theories 

learned  in  dissecting  room,  laboratory,  and  lecture  are 
connected  up  with  actual  relief  of  sick  women  and 
children.  Here  the  students  are  divided  into  small 
groups  and  many  kinds  of  clinical  demonstrations  are 
going  on  at  once.  In  the  compounding  room  you  will 
see  a  lesson  in  pill-making.  That  smiling  young  per- 
son working  away  on  the  floor  in  front  of  the  table  is 
a  West  Coast  Brahman,  sent  on  a  stipend  from  the 
Hindu  state  of  Travancore.  It  is  her  first  experience 
away  from  home  and  the  zest  and  adventure  of  the 
new  life  have  already  fired  her  spirit. 

In  this  verandah  another  group  are  at  work  with 
bandaging.     We  watch  them  while  brown  arms  and 


118  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

legs,  heads  and  bodies  disappear  under  complicated 
layers  of  white  gauze. 

In  the  large  ward  Seniors,  equipped  with  head  mir- 
rors and  stethoscopes,  with  chart  and  pen,  are  taking 
down  patients'  histories  and  suggesting  diagnoses. 
Soon  it  will  be  their  work  to  do  this  unaided,  and 
every  bit  of  supervised  practice  is  laying  up  stores  of 
experience  for  the  future. 

On  the  next  verandah  Doctor  Findlay  is  giving  a 
lecture  and  demonstration  on  the  care  and  feeding  of 
babies.  Demonstration  is  not  difficult,  for  the  hospital 
always  provides  an  abundance  of  ailing  infants  whose 
regulated  diet  and  consequently  improving  health  serve 
as  laboratory  tests. 

The  Ford  in  a  Now  we  follow  the  shady  verandah 
New  Capacity.  around  three  sides  of  the  attractive 
courtyard  with  its  trees  and  flowering  creepers.  At  the 
far  end  the  class  in  obstetrics  is  going  on.  And  be- 
hold, the  irrepressible  Ford  has  entered  into  a  new 
province.  This  truly  American  product  will  probably 
be  found  to-day  in  every  continent  and  nearly  every 
country  in  the  world,  but  one  ventures  to  prophesy 
that  Vellore  is  the  only  spot  on  the  habitable  globe 
where  its  cast-off  tires  have  been  metamorphosed  into 
models  of  human  organs !  Every  student  not  working 
over  an  actual  mother  or  baby  is  busy  performing  on 
these  home-made  rubber  models  the  operations  she 
may  some  day  be  called  to  do  upon  a  living  patient. 
In  the  midst  of  these  Dr.  Griscom  is  interrupted  by 


Interior  of  the  Temple  Where   God  is  a  Stone   Image 


Interior  of  the  Hospital  Where  God  is  Love 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  119 

a  student.  "Doctor,  you  remember  the  baby  in  the 
next  ward  that  didn't  cry  for  a  week  ?  You  know  that 
this  morning  you  slapped  it  and  it  cried  for  the  first 
time,  and  its  mother  was  very  happy.  Now  she  wants 
to  hear  it  cry  again,  and  says — may  she  please  beat  it 
herself  ?"  The  Doctor  leaves  her  Ford  tires,  and  runs 
to  the  ward  to  explain  to  the  overzealous  mother  the 
difference  between  massage  administered  by  a  physi- 
cian and  the  ordinary  manner  of  "beating"  a  baby. 

Our  next  place  of  pilgrimage  is  the  "town  site" 
where  the  new  Nurses'  Home  affords  temporary  dor- 
mitory accommodation.  Beside  it  is  the  Doctor's 
bungalow,  and  in  the  open  space  next  is  to  be  built  the 
big  dispensary.  This  is  well  called  the  "town  site,"  for 
it  is  in  the  thick  of  Vellore's  population.  Children, 
dogs,  and  donkeys  swarm  across  its  precincts,  and 
there  is  no  fear  of  these  students  being  separated  from 
the  actualities  of  Indian  life.  The  two-story  buildings, 
however,  give  abundant  opportunity  for  the  occupants 
to  "lift  up  their  eyes  unto  the  hills" ;  and  the  open  air 
sleeping-rooms  promise  breezes  in  the  hottest  nights. 

"Mrs.  Earth-  Here,  too,  the  Seniors  have  their  lec- 
Thou-Art"  tures  in  obstetrics,  and  with  the  be- 

ginning of  that  course  a  new  difficulty  arose.  Equip- 
ment here,  as  in  practically  every  Mission  institution,  is 
pitifully  limited  by  lack  of  funds.  For  the  proper 
teaching  of  obstetrics  there  is  need  of  a  pelvic  mani- 
kin, lifesize.  There  were  no  funds  to  spare  for  so  ex- 
pensive a  piece  of  apparatus,  and,  if  there  had  been, 


120  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

there  would  have  been  a  delay  of  months  in  getting  it 
out  from  England  or  America.  But  meantime  obstet- 
rics must  be  taught,  and  a  manikin  must  be  had. 
"Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention."  Necessity  got 
to  work,  and  "Mrs.  Earth-Thou-Art"  is  the  result.  Dr. 
Griscom  sent  for  the  potter,  who  left  his  wheel  in  the 
bazaar  and  came  to  this  market  for  new  wares.  After 
long  and  detailed  instructions,  he  returned  to  his  wheel, 
and  set  it  to  the  making  of  a  shape  never  seen  in  the 
potter's  vision  of  Jeremiah  or  Robert  Browning.  The 
first  attempt  was  a  failure ;  the  second  and  third  were 
equally  useless;  at  last  something  was  produced  that 
approximated  the  human  size  and  form.  The  tires  of 
the  Ford  were  again  requisitioned  and,  by  the  miracu- 
lous aid  of  the  blacksmith,  nailed  to  the  pottery  figure 
without  wrecking  the  latter.  "Mrs.  Earth-Thou-Art" 
at  last  reposed  complete,  one  example  of  the  triumph  of 
the  missionary  teacher  over  the  handicaps  of  the  situ- 
ation. We  hope  that  her  brittle  clay  will  survive  until 
such  time  as  some  friend  from  across  the  sea  is  moved 
to  provide  for  her  a  "store-made"  successor. 

"That  which  One  more  spot  must  be  visited  before 
shall  be."  our  pilgrimage  ends.  No  guest  of  the 

Medical  School  is  ever  allowed  to  depart  without  a 
visit  to  "the  site,"  that  pride  of  Dr.  Ida  Scudder  and 
her  staff. 

Three  miles  out  from  the  dust  and  noise  of  the 
bazaars  lies  this  tract  of  fertile  land,  the  near  hills  ris- 
ing even  within  its  boundaries,  the  heights  of  Kylasa 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  121 

forming  a  mountain  wall  against  the  sunset.  Here  in 
the  midst  of  natural  beauty,  open  to  every  wind  of 
heaven,  the  dormitories,  lecture  room,  chapel,  and  new 
hospital  will  rise.  It  will  mean  a  healthful  home,  with 
the  freedom  of  country  life  and  endless  opportunity 
for  games  and  walks.  The  motor  ambulances  will 
form  the  daily  connecting  link  with  the  practical  work 
of  dispensary  and  emergency  hospital. 

"Who's  Who."  We  have  spoken  much  of  buildings 
and  courses  of  study,  but  little  of  the  girls  themselves. 
Who  are  they  ?  Where  do  they  come  from  ?  Why  are 
they  here?  What  are  their  future  plans? 

They  are  girls  of  many  shades  of  belief,  from  many 
classes  of  society.  The  great  majority  are,  of  course, 
Protestant  Christians,  representing  the  work  of  almost 
every  Mission  Board  to  be  found  in  South  India. 
There  are  a  few  Roman  Catholics,  and  about  an  equal 
number  of  members  of  the  indigenous  Syrian  Chris- 
tian community.  Nine  are  Hindus,  including  one 
Brahman.  They  come  from  the  remotest  corners  of 
the  Madras  Presidency,  and  some  from  even  beyond 
its  borders. 

Why  did  they  come?  There  are  some  who  frankly 
admit  that  their  entrance  into  Medical  School  was  due 
solely  to  the  influence  of  parents  and  relatives,  and 
that  their  present  vital  interest  in  what  they  are  doing 
dates  back  not  to  any  childhood  desire  for  the  doctor's 
profession,  but  only  to  the  stimulating  experiences  of 
the  school  itself.  Others  tell  of  a  life-long  wish  for 


122  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

what  the  school  has  made  possible;  still  others  of 
"sudden  conversion"  to  medicine,  brought  about  by  a 
realization  of  need,  or  in  one  case  to  the  chance  advice 
of  a  school  friend.  Two  speak  of  the  appalling  need  of 
their  own  home  villages,  where  no  medical  help  for 
women  has  ever  been  known.  Some  of  the  students 
have  expressed  their  reasons  in  their  own  words : — 

"Once  I  had  a  severe  attack  of  influenza  and  was 
taken  to  the  General  Hospital,  Madras.  I  have  heard 
people  say  that  nurses  and  doctors  are  not  good  to  the 
patients.  But,  contrary  to  my  idea,  the  English  and 
Eurasian  nurses  there  were  very  good  and  kind  to 
me,  more  than  I  expected.  I  used  to  see  the  students 
of  the  Medical  College  of  Madras  paying  visits  to  all 
the  patients,  some  of  whom  were  waiting  for  mornings 
when  they  should  meet  their  medical  friends.  I  saw  all 
the  work  that  they  did.  The  nurses  were  very  busy 
helping  patients  and,  whatever  trouble  the  patients 
gave,  they  never  got  cross  with  them.  They  used  to 
sing  to  some  of  them  at  night,  give  toys  to  little  ones 
and  thus  coax  every  one  to  make  them  take  medicine. 
I  admired  the  kindness  and  goodness  that  all  the  medi- 
cal workers  with  whom  I  came  in  contact  possessed. 
As  medical  work  began  to  interest  me,  I  used  to  read 
magazines  about  medical  work.  Again,  when  I  once 
went  to  Karimnagar,  I  saw  ever  so  many  children  and 
women,  uncared  for  and  not  being  loved  by  high  caste 
people.  I  wanted  to  help  Indians  very  much.  All  these 
things  made  me  join  the  Medical  School." 


A   MEDICAL   STUDENT   IN   VELLORE 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  123 

"My  father's  desire  was  that  one  of  his  daughters 
should  study  medicine  and  work  in  the  hospital  where 
he  worked  for  twenty  years,  and  so  in  order  to  fulfil 
his  desire  I  made  up  my  mind  to  learn  medicine. 

"Now  my  father  is  dead  and  the  hospital  in  which 
he  had  worked  is  closed,  for  there  is  no  one  to  take  his 
place.  So  all  are  very  glad  to  see  that  I  am  learning 
medicine.  There  are  many  men  doctors  in  Ceylon,  but 
very  few  lady  doctors  and  I  think  that  God  has  given 
me  a  good  opportunity  to  work  for  Him." 

"For  a  long  time  I  did  not  know  much  about  the 
sufferings  of  my  country  women  without  proper  aid 
of  medical  women.  One  day  I  happened  to  attend  a 
meeting  held  by  some  Indian  ladies  and  one  Euro- 
pean. They  spoke  about  the  great  need  of  women  doc- 
tors in  India  and  all  about  the  sufferings  of  my  sisters. 
One  fact  struck  me  more  than  anything  else.  It  was 
about  an  untrained  mid-wife  who  treated  a  woman 
very  cruelly,  but  ignorantly.  From  that  time  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  study  medicine  with  the  aim  of  becom- 
ing a  loving  doctor.  My  wish  is  now  that  all  the 
women  doctors  should  be  real  Christian  doctors  with 
real  love  and  sympathizing  hearts  for  the  patients." 

"When  I  told  my  parents  that  I  wanted  to  study 
medicine,  they  and  my  relatives  objected  and  scolded 
me,  for  they  were  afraid  that  I  would  not  marry  if 
I  would  study  medicine.  In  India  they  think  meanly 
of  a  person,  especially  a  girl,  who  is  not  married  at  the 


124  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

proper  age.  I  want  now  to  show  my  people  that  it  is 
not  mean  to  remain  unmarried.  This  is  my  second  aim 
which  came  from  the  first." 

The  following  is  written  by  a  Hindu  student : — 

"Before  entering  into  the  subject,  I  should  like  to 
write  a  few  words  about  myself.  I  am  the  first  mem- 
ber of  our  community  to  attain  English  education.  Al- 
most all  my  relatives  (I  talk  only  about  the  female 
members  of  our  community)  have  learnt  only  to  write 
and  read  our  mother  language  Telugu. 

"When  I  entered  the  high  school  course  I  had  a  poor 
ambition  to  study  medicine.  I  do  not  know  whether 
it  was  due  to  the  influence  of  my  brother-in-law  who 
is  a  doctor,  or  whether  it  was  due  to  our  environments. 
Near  our  house  was  a  small  hospital.  It  was  doing 
excellent  work  for  the  last  five  years.  Now  unfor- 
tunately the  hospital  has  been  closed  for  want  of  stock 
and  good  doctors.  From  that  hospital  I  learnt  many 
things.  I  was  very  intimate  with  the  doctors.  I  ad- 
mired the  work  they  were  doing. 

"My  father  had  a  faithful  friend.  He  was  a  Brah- 
man. He  realized  from  his  own  experience  the  want 
of  lady  doctors.  He  had  a  daughter,  his  only  child,  and 
she  died  for  want  of  proper  medical  aid.  Whenever  my 
father's  friend  used  to  see  me  he  used  to  ask  my  father 
to  send  me  to  the  Medical  College,  for  he  was  quite 
interested  in  me,  like  my  own  father.  After  all,  as  soon 
as  I  passed  the  School  Final  Examination,  it  was  de- 
cided that  I  should  take  up  medicine,  but  at  that  time 


BETTER  BABIES 
Throughout  India.    Feeding  and  Weighing 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  125 

my  mother  raised  many  an  objection,  saying  the  caste 
rules  forbid  it.  I  left  the  idea  with  no  hope  of  renew- 
ing it  and  joined  the  Arts  College.  I  studied  one  year 
in  the  College.  Then  luckily  for  me  my  father  and  his 
friend  tried  for  a  scholarship. 

"Luckily  again,  it  was  granted  by  the  Travancore 
Government. 

"I  am  not  going  to  close  before  I  tell  a  few  words 
of  my  short  experience  in  the  College.  As  soon  as  I 
came  here  I  thought  I  wouldn't  be  able  to  learn  all 
the  things  I  saw  here.  I  looked  upon  everything  with 
strange  eyes  and  everything  seemed  strange  to  me, 
too.  But,  as  the  days  passed,  I  liked  all  that  was  going 
on  in  the  College.  The  study — I  now  long  to  hear 
more  of  it  and  study  it.  Now  everything  is  going  on 
well  with  me  and  I  hope  to  realize  my  ambition  with 
the  grace  of  the  Almighty,  for  the  'thoughts  of  wise 
men  are  Heaven-gleams.'  " 

You  ask,  what  of  the  future?  What  will  these 
young  doctors  bring  to  India's  need  ?  How  much  will 
they  do?  Might  one  dare  to  prophesy  that  in  years  to 
come  they  will  at  least  in  their  own  localities  make 
stories  like  the  following  impossible  ? 

A  woman  still  young,  though  mother  of  seven  living 
children,  is  carried  into  the  maternity  ward  of  the 
Woman's  Hospital.  At  the  hands  of  the  ignorant 
mid-wife  she  has  suffered  maltreatment  whose  details 
cannot  be  put  into  print,  followed  by  a  journey  in  a 
springless  cart  over  miles  of  rutted  country  road.  She 
is  laid  upon  the  operating  table  with  the  blessed  aid  of 


126  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

anaesthetics  at  hand;  there  is  still  time  to  save  the 
baby.  But  what  of  the  mother?  Only  one  more  case 
of  "too  late."  Pulseless,  yet  perfectly  conscious,  she 
hears  the  permission  given  to  the  relatives  to  take  her 
home,  and  knows  all  too  well  what  those  words  mean. 
The  Hospital  has  saved  her  baby;  her  it  cannot  save. 
Clinging  to  the  doctor's  hand  she  cries : 

"Oh,  Amma,  I  am  frightened.  Why  do  you  send 
me  away?  I  must  live.  My  little  children, — this  is 
the  eighth.  I  don't  care  for  myself,  but  I  must  live  for 
them.  Who  will  care  for  them  if  I  am  gone  ?  Oh,  let 
me  live!" 

And  the  doctor  could  only  answer,  "Too  late." 

On  that  road  where  the  doctor  passes  by,  one  day 
she  saw  a  beautiful  boy  of  one  year,  "the  only  son  of 
his  mother."  The  eyelids  were  shut  and  swollen. 
"His  history  ?"  the  doctor  asks.  Ordinary  country  sore 
eyes  that  someway  refused  to  get  well;  a  journey 
through  dust  and  heat  to  a  distant  shrine  of  healing; 
numberless  circlings  of  the  temple  according  to  ortho- 
dox Hindu  rites ;  then  a  return  home  to  order  from  the 
village  jeweller  two  solid  silver  eyeballs  as  offerings  to 
the  deity  of  the  shrine.  Weeks  are  consumed  by  these 
doings,  for  in  sickness  as  in  health  the  East  moves 
slowly.  Meantime  the  eyes  are  growing  more  swollen, 
more  painful.  At  last  someone  speaks  of  the  weekly 
visit  of  the  doctor  on  the  Gudiyattam  Road. 

The  doctor  picked  up  the  baby,  pushed  back  the 
swollen  eyelids,  and  washed  away  the  masses  of  pus, 
only  to  find  both  eyeballs  utterly  destroyed.  One 


Freshman  Class  at  Vellore 


Latest  Arrivals  at  Vellore 


SENT  FORTH  TO  HEAL  127 

more  to  be  added  to  the  army  of  India's  blind !  One 
more  case  of  "too  late" !  One  more  atom  in  the  mass 
of  India's  unnecessary,  preventable  suffering, — that 
suffering  which  moved  to  compassion  the  heart  of  the 
Christ.  How  many  more  weary  generations  must  pass 
before  we,  His  followers,  make  such  incidents  impos- 
sible? How  many  before  Indian  women  with  pitying 
eyes  and  tender  hands  shall  have  carried  the  gift  of 
healing,  the  better  gift  of  the  health  that  outstrips  dis- 
ease, through  the  roads  and  villages  of  India? 

The  existence  of  the  Medical  School  has  been  made 
possible  by  the  gifts  of  American  women.  Its  contin- 
ued existence  and  future  growth  depend  upon  the  same 
source.  Gifts  in  this  case  mean  not  only  money,  but 
life.  Where  are  those  American  students  who  are  to 
provide  the  future  doctors  and  nurses  not  only  to 
"carry  on"  this  school  as  it  exists,  but  to  build  it  up 
into  a  great  future?  It  is  to  the  girls  now  in  high 
school  and  college  that  the  challenge  of  the  future 
comes.  Among  the  conflicting  cries  of  the  street  and 
market  place,  comes  the  clear  call  of  Him  whom  we 
acknowledge  as  Master  of  life,  re-iterating  the  simple 
words  at  the  Lake  of  Galilee,  "What  is  that  to  thee? 
Follow  thou  me." 

Rupert  Brooke  has  sung  of  the  summons  of  the 
World  War  that  cleansed  the  heart  from  many  petti- 
nesses. His  words  apply  equally  well  to  this  service  of 
human  need  which  has  been  called  "war's  moral 
equivalent." 


128  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

"Now,  God  be  thanked,  Who  has  matched  us  with  His 

hour, 

And  caught  our  youth,  and  wakened  us  from  sleeping, 
With   hand   made   sure,   clear    eye,    and   sharpened 

power, 

To  turn,  as  swimmers  into  cleanness  leaping, 
Glad  from  a  world  grown  old  and  cold  and  weary." 


AN  EXAMPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  TREATMENT 

Volumes  might  be  written  on  the  atrocities  and  absurdities  of 
wizards,  quack  doctors,  and  the  hideous  usages  of  native  midwifery. 
The  ministry  of  Christian  physicians  comes  as  a  revelation  to  the 
tortured  victims. 

The  scene  is  a  ward  in  a  Christian  Hospital  for  women  in  South 
India.  The  patients  in  adjacent  beds,  convalescents,  converse  to- 
gether. 

"What's  the  matter  with  you?"  says  Bed  No.  1  contentedly.  "My 
husband  became  angry  with  me,  because  the  meal  wasn't  ready  when 
he  came  home  and  he  cut  my  face.  The  Doctor  Miss  Sahib  has 
mended  me,  she  has  dene  what  my  own  mother  would  not  do."  Said 
another  in  reply  to  the  question,  "The  cow  horned  my  arm,  but  until 
I  got  pneumonia  I  couldn't  stop  milking  or  making  bread  for  the  father 
of  my  children,  even  if  it  was  broken.  The  hospital  is  my  Mahap 
(mother-father)." 

"What  care  would  you  get  at  home?"  chimed  in  another  who  had 
been  burning  up  with  fever.  "Oh!  I  would  be  out  in  the  deserted 
part  of  the  woman's  quarters.  It  would  be  a  wonderful  thing  if  any 
one  would  pass  me  a  cup  of  water,"  she  replied.  From  another  bed,  a 
young  wife  of  sixteen  spoke  of  having  been  ill  with  abscesses.  "One 
broiling  day,"  she  said,  "I  had  fainted  with  thirst.  The  midwives 
had  neglected  me  all  through  the  night,  and,  thinking  I  was  dying, 
they  threw  me  from  the  cord-bed  to  the  floor,  and  dragged  me  down 
the  steep  stone  staircase  to  the  lowest  cellar  where  I  was  lying,  next 
to  the  evil-smelling  dust-bin,  ready  for  removal  by  the  carriers  of 
the  dead,  when  the  Doctor  Miss  Sahib  found  me  and  brought  me  here. 
She  is  my  mother  and  I  am  her  child." 

An  old  woman  in  Bed  No.  4  exhorts  the  patients  around  her  to 
trust  the  mission  workers.  "I  was  against  them  once,"  she  tells 
them,  "but  now  I  know  what  love  means.  Caste?  What  is  caste? 
I  believe  in  the  goodness  they  show.  That  is  their  caste." 

Words  profoundly  wise! 


ON  the  slope  of  the  desolate  river  among  tall  grasses  I 
asked  her,  "Maiden,  where  do  you  go  shading  your 
lamp  with  your  mantle?  My  house  is  all  dark  and  lone- 
some— lend  me  your  light!"  She  raised  her  dark  eyes  for 
a  moment  and  looked  at  my  face  through  the  dusk.  "I  have 
come  to  the  river,"  she  said,  "to  float  my  lamp  on  the  stream 
when  the  daylight  wanes  in  the  west."  I  stood  alone  among 
tall  grasses  and  watched  the  timid  flame  of  her  lamp  use- 
lessly drifting  in  the  tide. 

In  the  silence  of  the  gathering  night  I  asked  her,  "Maiden, 
your  lights  are  all  lit — then  where  do  you  go  with  your 
lamp?  My  house  is  all  dark  and  lonesome,— lend  me  your 
light."  She  raised  her  dark  eyes  on  my  face  and  stood  for 
a  moment  doubtful.  "I  have  come,"  she  said  at  last,  "to 
dedicate  my  lamp  to  the  sky."  I  stood  and  watched  her 
light  uselessly  burning  in  the  void. 

In  the  moonless  gloom  of  midnight  I  asked  her,  "Maiden, 
what  is  your  quest  holding  the  lamp  near  your  heart?  My 
house  is  all  dark  and  lonesome, — lend  me  your  light."  She 
stopped  for  a  minute  and  thought  and  gazed  at  my  face  in 
the  dark.  "I  have  brought  my  light,"  she  said,  "to  join  the 
carnival  of  lamps."  I  stood  and  watched  her  little  lamp 
uselessly  lost  among  lights. 

Rabindranath  Tagore. 


129 


CHAPTER   SIX 

WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS 

INDIA  has  boasted  certain  eminent  women  whom 
America  knows  well.  Ramabai  with  her  work  for 
widows  is  a  household  word  in  American  homes  and 
colleges;  President  Harrison's  sentences  of  apprecia- 
tion emphasized  the  distinction  that  already  belonged 
to  Lilavati  Singh;  Chandra  Lela's  search  for  God 
has  passed  into  literature.  The  Sorabji  sisters  are 
known  in  the  worlds  of  law,  education,  and  medicine. 

But  these  names  are  not  the  only  ones  that  India 
has  to  offer.  In  the  streets  of  her  great  cities  where 
two  civilizations  clash;  in  sleepy,  old-world  towns 
where  men  and  women,  born  under  the  shade  of  temple 
towers  and  decaying  palaces,  are  awakening  to  think 
new  thoughts ;  in  isolated  villages  where  life  still  harks 
back  to  pre-historic  days — against  all  these  back- 
grounds you  may  find  the  Christian  educated  woman 
of  New  India  measuring  her  untried  strength  against 
the  powers  of  age-old  tradition. 

In  this  chapter  I  would  tell  you  of  a  few  such  women 
whom  I  have  met.  They  are  not  the  only  ones;  they 
may  not  be  even  pre-eminent.  Many  who  knew  India 
well  would  match  them  with  lists  from  other  locali- 
ties and  in  other  lines  of  service. 

These  five  are  all  college  women.  One  had  but  two 
years  in  a  Mission  College  whose  course  of  study 

130 


DORA  MOHINI  MAYA  DAS 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  131 

went  no  further;  one  carries  an  American  degree; 
three  are  graduates  of  a  Government  College  for  men. 
All  go  back  to  the  pioneer  days  before  Madras 
Women's  Christian  College  and  Vellore  Medical 
School  saw  the  light,  and  when  Isabella  Thoburn's 
college  department  was  small ;  all  five  bear  proudly  the 
name  of  Christian;  through  five  different  professions 
they  are  giving  to  the  world  of  India  their  own  ex- 
pression of  what  Christianity  has  meant  to  them. 

Home  Making  Throughout  India  there  exists  a 
and  Church  group  of  women  workers,  widely 

Work.  scattered,  largely  unknown  to  one 

another,  in  the  public  eye  unhonored  and  unsung,  yet 
performing  tasks  of  great  significance.  Wherever  an 
Indian  Church  raises  its  tower  to  the  sky,  there  work- 
ing beside  the  pastor  you  will  find  the  pastor's  wife. 

Sometimes  she  lives  in  the  heart  of  the  Hindu  town ; 
sometimes  in  a  village,  in  the  primitive  surroundings 
of  a  mass-movement  community.  Eminent  among 
such  is  Mrs.  Azariah,  wife  of  the  first  Indian  bishop, 
and  with  him  at  the  head  of  the  Tinnevelly  Missionary 
Society  at  Dornakal.  There,  in  the  heart  of  the  Dec- 
can,  among  primitive  Telugu  outcastes,  is  this  remark- 
able group  of  Indian  missionaries,  supported  by  Indian 
funds,  winning  these  lowly  people  through  the  gospel 
of  future  salvation  and  of  present  betterment 

It  was  on  a  Sunday  morning  that  I  slipped  into  the 
communion  service  at  Dornakal.  The  little  church, 
built  from  Indian  gifts  with  no  aid  from  the  West,  is 


132  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

simplicity  itself.  The  roof  thatched  with  millet  stalks, 
the  low-hanging  palmyra  rafters  hung  with  purple 
everlastings,  the  earth-floor  covered  with  bamboo  mat- 
ting, all  proclaimed  that  here  was  a  church  built  and 
adorned  by  the  hands  of  its  worshippers.  The  Bishop 
in  his  vestments  dispensed  the  sacrament  from  the 
simple  altar.  Even  the  Episcopal  service  had  been  so 
adapted  to  Indian  conditions  that  instead  of  the  sound 
of  the  expected  chants  one  heard  the  Te  Deum  and  the 
Venite  set  to  the  strains  of  Telugu  lyrics.  The  audi- 
ence, largely  of  teachers,  theological  students,  and 
schoolboys  and  girls,  sat  on  the  clean  floor  space.  One 
saw  and  listened  with  appreciation  and  reverence, 
finding  here  a  beginning  and  prophecy  of  what  the 
Christianized  fraction  of  India  will  do  for  its  mother- 
land. 

It  was  against  this  background  that  I  came  to  know 
Mrs.  Azariah.  In  the  bungalow,  as  the  Bishop's  wife, 
she  presides  with  dignity  over  a  household  where  rules 
of  plain  living  and  high  thinking  prevail.  She  dis- 
penses hospitality  to  the  many  European  guests  who 
come  to  see  the  activities  of  this  experimental  mission 
station,  and  packs  the  Bishop  off  well  provided  with 
food  and  traveling  comforts  for  his  long  and  numerous 
journeys.  The  one  little  son  left  at  home  is  his 
mother's  constant  companion  and  shows  that  his  train- 
ing has  not  been  neglected  for  the  multitude  of  outside 
duties.  One  longs  to  see  the  house  when  the  five  older 
children  turn  homeward  from  school  and  college,  and 
fill  the  bungalow  with  the  fun  of  their  shared  experi- 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  133 

ences.  Mercy,  the  eldest  daughter,  is  one  of  the  first 
Indian  women  students  to  venture  on  the  new  com- 
mercial course  offered  by  the  Young  Women's  Chris- 
tian Association  with  the  purpose  of  fitting  herself  to 
be  her  father's  secretary.  In  a  few  months  she  will  be 
bringing  the  traditions  of  the  Women's  Christian  Col- 
lege of  Madras,  where  she  spent  two  previous  years, 
to  share  with  the  Dornakal  community. 

But,  though  wife  and  mother  and  home  maker,  Mrs. 
Azariah's  interests  extend  far  beyond  the  confines  of 
her  family.  She  is  president  of  the  Madras  Mothers' 
Union,  and  editor  of  the  little  magazine  that  travels  to 
the  homes  of  Tamil  and  Telugu  Christian  women, 
their  only  substitute  for  the  "Ladies'  Home  Journal" 
and  "Modern  Priscilla."  She  is  also  the  teacher  of  the 
women's  class,  made  up  of  the  wives  of  the  theological 
students.  A  Tamil  woman  in  a  Telugu  country,  she, 
too,  must  have  known  a  little  of  the  linguistic  woes  of 
the  foreign  missionary.  Those  days,  however,  are  long 
past,  and  she  now  teaches  her  daily  classes  in  fluent 
and  easy  Telugu.  There  are  also  weekly  trips  to  near- 
by hamlets,  where  the  women-students  are  guided  by 
her  into  the  ways  of  adapting  the  Christian's  good 
news  to  the  comprehension  of  the  plain  village  woman, 
whose  interests  are  bounded  by  her  house,  her  children, 
her  goats,  and  her  patch  of  millet. 

Such  a  village  we  visited  that  same  Sunday,  when 
toward  evening  the  Bishop,  Mrs.  Azariah,  and  I  set 
out  to  walk  around  the  Dornakal  domain.  We  saw  the 
gardens  and  farm  from  which  the  boys  supply  the 


134  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

whole  school  family  with  grain  and  fresh  vegetables; 
we  looked  up  to  the  grazing  grounds  and  saw  the  herd 
of  draught  bullocks  coming  into  the  home  sheds  from 
their  Sunday  rest  in  pasture.  I  was  told  about  the 
other  activities  which  I  should  see  on  the  working  day 
to  follow — spinning  and  weaving  and  sewing,  cooking 
and  carpentry  and  writing  and  reading — a  simple 
Christian  communism  in  which  the  boys  farm  and 
weave  for  the  girls,  and  the  girls  cook  and  sew  for 
the  boys,  and  all  live  together  a  life  that  is  leading  up 
to  homes  of  the  future. 

It  was  after  all  that  that  we  saw  the  village.  On 
the  edge  of  the  Mission  property  we  came  to  the  small 
group  of  huts,  wattled  from  tree  branches  and  clay, 
inhabited  by  Indian  gypsy  folk,  just  settling  from 
nomadism  into  agricultural  life.  So  primitive  are  they 
still,  that  lamp  light  is  taboo  among  them,  and  the  in- 
troduction of  a  kerosene  lantern  would  force  them  to 
tear  down  those  attempts  at  house  architecture  and 
move  on  to  a  fresh  site,  safe  from  the  perils  of  civili- 
zation. It  is  among  such  primitive  folk  that  Mrs. 
Azariah  and  her  students  carry  their  message.  Her- 
self a  college  woman,  what  experiment  in  sociology 
could  be  more  thrilling  than  her  contact  with  such  a 
remnant  of  the  primitive  folk  of  the  early  world? 

Mother,  home-maker,  editor,  teacher,  evangelist, 
with  quiet  unconsciousness  and  utter  simplicity  she  is 
building  her  corner  of  Christian  India. 

Public  Service.     "To-morrow  is  the  day  of  the  Annual 


MRS.  PAUL  APPASAMY 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  135 

Fair  and  I  am  so  busy  with  arrangements  that  I  had 
no  time  even  to  answer  the  note  you  sent  me  yester- 
day." No,  this  was  not  said  in  New  York  or  Boston, 
but  in  Madras ;  and  the  speaker  was  not  an  American 
woman,  but  Mrs.  Paul  Appasamy,  the  All-India 
Women's  Secretary  of  the  National  Missionary  Soci- 
ety. 

It  was  at  luncheon  time  that  I  found  Mrs.  Appas- 
amy at  home,  and  persuaded  her  by  shortening  her 
meal  a  bit  to  find  time  to  sit  down  with  me  a  few  min- 
utes and  tell  me  of  some  of  the  opportunities  that 
Madras  offers  to  an  Indian  Christian  woman  with  a 
desire  for  service. 

For  such  service  Mrs.  Appasamy  has  unusual  quali- 
fications. The  fifth  woman  to  enter  the  Presidency 
College  of  Madras,  she  was  one  of  those  early  pioneers 
of  woman's  education,  of  whom  we  have  spoken  with 
admiring  appreciation.  Two  years  of  association  with 
Pandita  Ramabai  in  her  great  work  at  Poona  added 
practical  experience  and  a  familiarity  with  organiza- 
tion. Some  years  after  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Appasamy, 
a  barrister-at-law  in  Madras,  came  the  opportunity  for 
a  year  of  foreign  travel,  divided  between  England  and 
America.  Such  experiences  could  not  fail  to  give  a 
widened  outlook,  and,  when  Mrs.  Appasamy  returned 
to  make  her  home  in  Madras,  she  soon  found  that  not 
even  with  four  children  to  look  after,  could  her  inter- 
ests be  confined  to  the  walls  of  her  own  home. 

American  girls  might  be  interested  to  know  how 
wide  a  range  of  activities  Indian  life  affords — how  far 


13G  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

the  Western  genius  for  organization  and  committee- 
life  has  invaded  the  East.  Here  is  a  partial  list  of  Mrs. 
Appasamy's  affiliations: 

Member  of  Council  and  Executive  for  the  Women's 
Christian  College. 

Vice  President  of  the  Madras  Y.  W.  C.  A. 

Member  of  the  Hostel  Committee  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 

Member  of  the  Vernacular  Council  of  the  Y.  W. 
C.  A. 

Women's  Secretary  for  All  India  of  the  National 
Missionary  Society. 

Supervisor  of  a  Social  Service  Committee  for 
Madras. 

President  of  the  Christian  Service  Union. 

Of  all  her  activities,  Mrs.  Appasamy's  connection 
with  the  National  Missionary  Society  is  perhaps  the 
most  interesting.  The  "N.  M.  S.,"  as  it  is  familiarly 
called,  is  a  cause  very  near  to  the  hearts  of  most  Indian 
Christians.  The  work  in  Dornakal  represents  the  ef- 
forts of  Tinnevelly  Tamil  Christians  for  the  evangeli- 
zation of  one  section  of  the  Telugu  country.  The  N. 
M.  S.  is  a  co-ordinated  enterprise,  taking  in  the  con- 
tributions of  all  parts  of  Christian  India  and  applying 
them  to  seven  fields  in  seven  different  sections  of  In- 
dia's great  expanse.  The  first  is  denominational  and 
intensive;  the  second  interdenominational  and  exten- 
sive. India  has  room  for  both  and  for  many  more  of 
each.  Both  are  built  upon  the  principle  of  Indian  in- 
itiative and  employ  Indian  workers  paid  by  Indian 
money. 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  137 

In  the  early  days  of  the  N.  M.  S.,  its  missionaries 
were  all  men,  assisted  perhaps  by  their  wives,  who  with 
household  cares  could  give  only  limited  service.  Later 
came  the  idea  that  here  was  a  field  for  Indian  women. 
At  the  last  convention,  the  question  of  women's  con- 
tribution and  women's  work  was  definitely  raised,  and 
Mrs.  Appasamy  took  upon  herself  the  burden  of  travel 
and  appeal.  Already  she  has  organized  contributing 
branches  among  the  women  of  India's  principal  cities 
and  is  now  anticipating  a  trip  to  distant  Burmah  for 
the  same  purpose.  Rupees  8,000— about  $2,300.00— 
lie  in  the  treasury  as  the  first  year's  response,  much  of 
it  given  in  contributions  of  a  few  cents  each  from 
women  in  deep  poverty,  to  whom  such  gifts  are  liter- 
ally the  "widow's  mite." 

The  spending  of  the  money  is  already  planned.  In 
the  far  north  in  a  Punjabi  village  a  house  is  now  a- 
building  and  its  occupant  is  chosen.  Miss  Sirkar,  a 
graduate  now  teaching  in  Kinnaird  College,  Lahore, 
has  determined  to  leave  her  life  within  college  walls, 
to  move  into  the  little  house  in  the  isolated  village,  and 
there  on  one  third  of  her  present  salary  to  devote  her 
trained  abilities  to  the  solution  of  rural  problems.  It 
is  a  new  venture  for  an  unmarried  woman.  It  requires 
not  only  the  gift  of  a  dedicated  life,  but  also  the  cour- 
age of  an  adventurous  spirit.  Elementary  school  teach- 
ing, social  service,  elementary  medical  help — these  are 
some  of  the  "jobs"  that  face  this  new  missionary  to  her 
own  people. 

But,  to  return  to  Mrs.  Appasamy,  she  not  only  or- 


138  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

ganizes  other  people  for  work,  but  in  the  depressed 
communities  of  Madras  herself  carries  on  the  tasks  of 
social  uplift.  As  supervisor  of  a  Social  Service  or- 
ganization, she  has  the  charge  of  the  work  carried  on 
in  fifteen  outcaste  villages.  With  the  aid  of  several 
co-workers  frequent  visits  are  made.  Night  schools 
are  held  for  adults  who  must  work  during  the  hours  of 
daylight,  but  who  gather  at  night  around  the  light  of 
a  smoky  kerosene  lantern  to  struggle  with  the  intrica- 
cies of  the  Tamil  alphabet.  Ignorant  women,  naturally 
fearful  of  ulterior  motives,  are  befriended,  until  trust 
takes  the  place  of  suspicion.  The  sick  are  induced  to 
go  to  hospitals;  learners  are  prepared  for  baptism; 
during  epidemics  the  dead  are  buried.  During  the 
great  strike  in  the  cotton  mills,  financial  aid  was  given. 
Hull  House,  Chicago,  or  a  Madras  Pariah  Cheri — the 
stage  setting  shifts,  but  the  fundamental  problems  of 
ignorance  and  poverty  and  disease  are  the  same  the 
world  around.  The  same  also  is  the  spirit  for  service, 
whether  it  shines  through  the  life  of  Jane  Addams  or 
of  Mrs.  Appasamy. 

With  the  The  autumn  of  1906  saw  the  advent 

"Blue  Triangle."  of  the  first  Indian  student  at  Mt. 
Holyoke  College.  Those  were  the  days  when  Oriental 
students  were  still  rare  and  the  entrance  of  Dora  Maya 
Das  among  seven  hundred  American  college  girls  was 
a  sensation  to  them  as  well  as  an  event  to  her. 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  wide-spreading  plains  of  the 
Punjab  with  their  burning  heats  of  summer  to  the 


PUTTING  SPICES  IN   BABY'S   MILK 
Notice  Feeding  Vessels,  Shell  and  Tin  Cup 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  139 

cosy  greenness  of  the  Connecticut  valley — a  far  cry 
in  more  senses  than  geographical  distance.  Dora  had 
grown  up  in  a  truly  Indian  home,  as  one  of  thirteen 
children,  her  father  a  new  convert  to  Christianity, 
her  mother  a  second  generation  Christian.  The  Maya 
Das  family  were  in  close  contact  with  a  little  circle  of 
American  missionaries.  An  American  child  was  Dora's 
playmate  and  "intimate  friend."  In  the  absence  of 
any  nearby  school,  an  American  woman  was  her 
teacher,  who  opened  for  her  the  door  of  English  read- 
ing, that  door  that  has  led  so  many  Oriental  students 
into  a  large  country.  Later  came  the  desire  for  col- 
lege education.  To  an  application  to  enter  among 
the  men  students  of  Forman  Christian  College  at  La- 
hore came  the  principal's  reply  that  she  might  do  so  if 
she  could  persuade  two  other  girls  to  join  her.  The 
two  were  sought  for  and  found,  and  these  three  pi- 
oneers of  women's  education  in  the  Punjab  entered 
classes  which  no  woman  had  invaded  before. 

Then  came  the  suggestion  of  an  American  college, 
and  Dora  started  off  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  that 
must  have  been  epoch-making  in  her  life.  It  is,  as  I 
have  said,  a  far  cry  from  Lahore  to  South  Hadley.  It 
means  not  only  physical  acclimatization,  but  far  more 
delicate  adjustments  of  the  mind  and  spirit.  Many  a 
missionary,  going  back  and  forth  at  intervals  of  five 
or  seven  years,  could  tell  you  of  the  periods  of  strain 
and  stress  that  those  migrations  bring.  How  much 
more  for  a  girl  still  in  her  teens !  New  conventions, 
new  liberties,  new  reserves — it  was  young  David  going 


140  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

forth  in  Saul's  untried  armor.  Of  spiritual  loneliness, 
too,  she  could  tell  much,  for  to  the  Eastern  girl,  always 
untrammelled  in  her  expression  of  religious  emotion, 
our  Western  restraint  is  an  incomprehensible  thing. 
"I  was  lonely,"  says  Miss  Maya  Das,  "and  then  after 
a  time  I  reacted  to  my  environment  and  put  on  a  re- 
serve that  was  even  greater  than  theirs." 

So  six  years  passed — one  at  Northfield,  four  at  Mt. 
Holyoke,  and  one  at  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Training  School 
in  New  York.  Girls  of  that  generation  at  Mt.  Holyoke 
will  not  forget  their  Indian  fellow  student  who 
"starred"  in  Shakespearian  roles  and  brought  a  new 
Oriental  atmosphere  to  the  pages  of  the  college  maga- 
zine. Six  years,  and  then  the  return  to  India,  and 
another  period  of  adjustment  scarcely  less  difficult  than 
the  first.  That  was  in  1910,  and  the  years  since  have 
seen  Miss  Maya  Das  in  various  capacities.  First  as 
lecturer,  and  then  as  acting  principal  of  Kinnaird  Col- 
lege at  Lahore,  she  passed  on  to  girls  of  her  own  Prov- 
ince something  of  Mt.  Holyoke's  gifts  to  her.  Now  in 
Calcutta,  she  is  Associate  National  Secretary  of  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A. 

It  was  in  Calcutta  that  I  met  Miss  Maya  Das,  and 
that  she  left  me  with  two  outstanding  impressions. 
The  first  is  that  of  force  and  initiative  unusual  in  an 
Indian  woman.  How  much  of  this  is  due  to  her 
American  education,  how  much  to  her  far-northern 
home  and  ancestry,  is  difficult  to  say.  Whatever  the 
cause,  one  feels  in  her  resource  and  executive  ability. 
In  that  city  of  purdah  women,  she  moves  about  with 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  141 

the  freedom  and  dignity  of  a  European  and  is  received 
with  respect  and  affection. 

The  second  characteristic  which  strikes  one  is  the 
fact  that  Miss  Maya  Das  has  remained  Indian.  One  can 
name  various  Indian  men  and  some  women  who  have 
become  so  denationalized  by  foreign  education  that 
"home"  is  to  them  the  land  beyond  the  water,  and  un- 
derstanding of  their  own  people  has  lessened  to  the 
vanishing  point.  That  Miss  Maya  Das  is  still  essen- 
tially Indian  is  shown  by  such  outward  token  as  that  of 
dropping  her  first  name,  which  is  English,  and  choos- 
ing to  be  known  by  her  Indian  name  of  Mohini,  and 
also  by  adherence  to  distinctively  Indian  dress,  even 
to  the  .embroidered  Panjabi  slippers.  What  matters 
more  is  the  inward  habit  of  mind  of  which  these  are 
mere  external  expressions. 

In  a  recent  interview  with  Mr.  Gandhi,  Miss  Maya 
Das  told  him  that  as  a  Christian  she  could  not  sub- 
scribe to  the  Non-Co-operation  Movement,  because  of 
the  racial  hate  and  bitterness  that  it  engenders;  yet 
just  because  she  was  a  Christian  she  could  stand  for 
all  constructive  movements  for  India  in  economic  and 
social  betterment.  One  of  Mr.  Gandhi's  slogans  is  "a 
spinning  wheel  in  every  home,"  that  India  may  revive 
its  ancient  arts  and  crafts  and  no  longer  be  clothed  by 
the  machine  looms  of  a  distant  country.  Miss  Maya 
Das  told  him  that  she  had  even  anticipated  him  in  this 
movement,  for  she  and  other  Christian  women  of  ad- 
vanced education  are  following  a  regular  course  in 
spinning  and  weaving,  with  the  purpose  of  passing  on 


142  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

this  skill  through  the  Rural  Department  of  the  Y.  W. 
C.  A. 

Another  pet  scheme  of  Miss  Maya  Das  is  the  newly 
formed  Social  Service  League  of  Calcutta.  Into  its 
membership  has  lately  come  the  niece  of  a  C1  .airman  of 
the  All-India  Congress,  deciding  that  the  constructive 
forces  of  social  reform  are  better  to  follow  than  the 
destructive  programme  of  Non-Co-operation.  Miss 
Maya  Das  longs  to  turn  her  abounding  energy  into 
efforts  toward  purdah  parties  and  lectures  for  the 
shut-in  women  of  the  higher  classes,  believing  that  in 
this  way  the  Association  can  both  bring  new  interests 
into  narrow  lives,  and  can  also  gain  the  help  and  finan- 
cial support  of  these  bored  women  of  wealth  toward 
work  among  the  poor. 

One  of  Miss  Maya  Das's  interests  is  a  month's  sum- 
mer school  for  rural  workers,  a  prolonged  Indian  Sil- 
ver Bay,  held  at  a  temperature  of  112°  in  the  shade, 
during  the  month  of  May  when  all  schools  and  colleges 
are  closed  for  the  hot  weather  vacation.  Last  year 
women  came  to  it  from  distant  places,  women  who  had 
never  been  from  home  before,  who  had  never  seen  a 
"movie,"  who  had  never  entered  a  rowboat  or  an  auto- 
mobile. "  Miss  Maya  Das's  stereopticon  lectures  car- 
ried these  women  in  imagination  to  war  scenes  where 
women  helped,  to  Hampton  Institute,  to  Japan,  and 
suggested  practical  ways  of  assisting  in  tuberculosis 
campaigns  and  child  welfare.  After  four  weeks  of 
social  enjoyment  and  Christian  teaching  they  returned 
again  to  their  scattered  branches  "with  the  curtain 


BABY  ON  SCALES 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  143 

lifted."  That  same  lifting  of  many  curtains  in  many 
parts  of  India  is  due  to  this  energetic  member  of  the 
Blue  Triangle. 

Child  Welfare.  In  the  city  of  Madras  there  is  to-day 
a  young  woman,  quiet  in  appearance  and  low  of  voice, 
who  has  lately  married  and  entered  into  the  home  of 
her  own  choosing.  But  the  home  is  not  for  her  com- 
fort during  many  hours  of  the  working  day.  While 
Professor  Chinnappa  is  busy  with  his  lectures  at  Pres- 
idency College,  Mrs.  Chinnappa,  better  known  as  Dr. 
Vera  Singhe  is  even  busier,  for  she  is  the  superinten- 
dent of  the  Madras  Corporation  Child  Welfare 
Scheme*  whose  three  centres  were  in  fifteen  months 
responsible  for  the  care  of  50,643  mothers. 

Statistics  are  the  part  of  a  book  usually  left  unread, 
yet  in  this  case  they  are  worth  noting  with  care.  In 
Newark,  N.  J.,  in  1917  out  of  every  1000  babies  born 
88  died.  In  Madras  during  the  following  year,  1918, 
out  of  1000,  355  died.  In  1920,  in  one  area  of  the  city 
the  infantile  death  rate  rose  to  50%. 

What  makes  the  difference  ?  Dr.  Vera  Singhe's  re- 
port names  over  some  of  the  causes; — overcrowding; 
young  and  inexperienced  motherhood ;  barbarous  and 
untrained  midwives;  ignorance  of  hygiene;  poverty, 
alcoholism;  syphilis.  The  list  from  Newark,  N.  J., 
would  probably  read  not  so  differently.  The  social 
evils  that  kill  babies  are  much  the  same  all  over  the 
world,  yet  the  difference  in  intensity  raises  the  sum 

•Corporation  of  Madras— Report  of  Child  Welfare  Scheme,  1919-20. 


144  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

total  of  their  results  from  88  in  Newark  to  355  in 
Madras. 

What  is  Dr.  Vera  Singhe  doing  about  it  ?  With  her 
two  medical  assistants,  her  corps  of  nurses,  and  the  in- 
creasing number  of  health  visitors  whom  she  herself 
has  trained,  she  has  been  able  to  reduce  the  death  rate 
among  the  babies  in  her  care  during  1920  from  the  city 
rate  of  280  for  that  year  to  231. 

But  enough  of  statistics.  More  enlightening  than 
printed  reports  is  a  visit  to  the  Triplicane  Health  Cen- 
tre, where  in  the  midst  of  a  congested  district  work  is 
actually  going  on.  We  shall  find  no  up-to-date  build- 
ing with  modern  equipment,  but  a  middle-class  Hindu 
house,  adapted  as  well  as  may  be  to  its  new  purpose. 
Among  its  obvious  drawbacks,  there  is  the  one  advan- 
tage, that  patients  feel  themselves  at  home  and  realize 
that  what  the  doctor  does  in  those  familiar  surround- 
ings they  can  carry  over  to  their  own  home  life. 

Our  visit  happens  to  be  on  a  Thursday  afternoon, 
which  is  Mothers'  Day.  Thirty  or  more  have  gathered 
for  an  hour  of  sewing.  It  is  interesting  to  see  mothers 
of  families  taking  their  first  lessons  in  hemming  and 
overcasting,  and  creating  for  the  first  time  with  their 
own  hands  the  garments  for  which  they  have  always 
been  dependent  on  the  bazaar  tailor.  For  these  women 
have  never  been  to  school — their  faces  bear  that  shut- 
in  look  of  the  illiterate,  a  look  impossible  to  define,  but 
just  as  impossible  to  mistake  when  once  it  has  been 
recognized.  \Vith  the  mothers  are  a  group  of  girls  of 
ten  or  twelve,  who  are  learning  sewing  at  an  earlier 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  145 

age,  when  fingers  are  more  pliant  and  less  like  to 
thumbs.  Then  there  are  the  babies,  too — most  of  them 
health-centre  babies,  who  come  for  milk,  for  medicine, 
for  weighing,  over  a  familiar  and  oft-traveled  road. 
Fond  mothers  exhibit  them  with  pride  to  the  doctor, 
and  there  is  much  comparison  of  offspring,  much 
chatter,  and  much  general  sociability. 

Back  of  the  dispensary  is  the  milk  room,  where  in 
an  adapted  and  Indianized  apparatus,  due  to  the  doc- 
tor's ingenuity,  the  milk  supply  is  pasteurized  each  day, 
and  given  out  only  to  babies  whose  mothers  are  posi- 
tively unable  to  nurse  them,  and  are  too  poor  to  buy. 

Of  some  of  the  difficulties  encountered  Dr.  Vera 
Singhe  will  tell  in  her  own  words : 

"The  work  of  the  midwife  is  carried  out  in  the 
filthiest  parts  of  the  city  among  the  lowest  of  the  city's 
population,  both  day  and  night,  in  sun  and  rain  ...  A 
patient  whose  'address'  was  registered  at  the  Tripli- 
cane  Centre  was  searched  for  by  a  nurse  on  duty  in 
the  locality  of  the  'address'  given,  and  could  not  be 
found.  Much  disappointed,  the  nurse  was  returning 
to  the  centre,  when  to  her  bewilderment  she  found 
that  her  patient  had  been  delivered  in  a  broken  cart." 

Of  some  of  the  actual  cases  where  mothers  have 
been  attended  by  untrained  barber  women,  the  details 
are  too  revolting  to  publish.  Imagine  the  worst  you 
can,  and  then  be  sure  that  your  imagination  has  alto- 
gether missed  the  mark. 

Of  the  reaction  upon  ignorance  and  superstition  Dr. 
Vera  Singhe  says,  "In  Triplicane  dispensary  as  many 


146  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

as  sixty  cords  around  waists  and  arms  and  variously 
shaped  and  sized  pieces  of  leather  which  had  been  tied 
in  much  trust  and  confidence  to  an  innocent  sufferer 
with  the  hope  of  obtaining  recovery  have  been  in  a 
single  day  removed  by  the  mothers  themselves  on  see- 
ing that  our  treatment  was  more  effective  than  the 
talisman." 

Weighing,  feeding,  bathing,  prevention  of  disease, 
simple  remedies — knowledge  of  all  these  goes  out  from 
the  health  centres  to  the  unsanitary  homes  of  crowded 
city  streets.  So  far  one  woman's  influence  penetrates. 

In  a  Hospital.  It  was  on  a  train  journey  up-country 
from  Madras,  some  twelve  years  ago,  that  I  first  met 
Dr.  Paru.  She  and  I  shared  the  long  seat  of  the  small 
second-class  compartment,  and  in  that  close  neighbor- 
liness  I  soon  fell  to  wondering.  From  her  dress  I 
knew  her  to  be  a  Hindu,  yet  her  jewels  were  few  and 
inconspicuous.  She  was  most  evidently  of  good  family, 
yet  she  was  traveling  unattended. 

Presently  we  fell  into  some  casual  talk,  the  inconse- 
quent remarks  common  to  chance  acquaintance  the 
world  over.  More  intimate  conversation  followed, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  short  journey  together,  I 
knew  who  Miss  Paru  was.  The  oldest  daughter  of  a 
liberal  Hindu  lawyer  on  the  Malabar  Coast,  she  was 
performing  the  astounding  feat  of  taking  a  medical 
course  at  the  Men's  Government  College  in  Madras, 
while  systematically  breaking  her  caste  by  living  at  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  I  almost  gasped  with  astonishment.  "But 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  147 

what  do  your  relatives  say?"  I  asked.  "Oh,"  she  re- 
plied, "my  father  is  the  head  of  his  family  and  an 
influential  man  in  our  town.  He  does  as  he  pleases 
and  no  one  dares  to  object." 

That  was  twelve  years  ago.  Yesterday  for  the  sec- 
ond time  I  met  my  traveling  companion  of  long  ago. 
She  is  now  Dr.  Paru,  assistant  to  Dr.  Kugler  in  the  big 
Guntur  Women's  Hospital,  with  its  hundred  beds, 
managing  alone  its  daily  dispensary  list  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  patients,  and  performing  unaided  such 
difficult  major  operations  as  a  Caesarean  section  for 
a  Brahman  woman,  of  whom  Dr.  Kugler  says,  "The 
patient  had  made  many  visits  to  Hindu  shrines,  but 
the  desire  of  her  life,  her  child,  was  the  result  of  an 
operation  in  a  Mission  Hospital.  In  our  Hospital  her 
living  child  was  placed  in  her  arms  as  a  result  of  an 
operation  performed  by  a  Christian  doctor." 

How  did  Dr.  Paru,  the  Hindu  medical  student,  de- 
velop into  Dr.  Paru,  the  Christian  physician?  I  asked 
her  and  she  told  me,  and  her  answers  were  a  series  of 
pictures  as  vivid  as  her  own  personality. 

First,  there  was  Paru  in  her  West  Coast  Home, 
among  the  cocoanut  palms  and  pepper  vines  of  Mala- 
bar where  the  mountains  come  down  to  meet  the  sea 
and  the  sea  greets  the  mountains  in  abundant  rains. 
Over  that  Western  sea  once  came  the  strange  craft  of 
Vasco  di  Gama,  herald  of  a  new  race  of  invaders  from 
the  unknown  West.  Over  the  same  sea  to-day  come 
men  of  many  tongues  and  races,  and  Arab  and  Afri- 
can Negroes  jostle  by  still  in  the  bazaars  of  West 


148  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

Coast  towns.  Such  was  the  setting  of  Paru's  home. 
During  her  childhood  days  certain  visitors  came  to  its 
door,  Bible  women  with  parts  of  the  New  Testament 
for  sale,  little  paper-bound  Gospels  with  covers  of 
bright  blue  and  red.  The  contents  meant  nothing  to 
Paru  then,  but  the  colors  were  attractive,  and  for  their 
sake  she  and  her  sister,  childlike,  bought,  and  after 
buying,  because  they  were  schoolgirls  and  the  art  of 
reading  was  new  to  them,  read. 

The  best  girls'  school  in  that  Malabar  town  was  a 
Roman  Catholic  convent.  It  was  there  that  Paru's 
education  was  given  to  her,  and  it  was  there  that 
prayer,  even  in  its  cruder  forms,  entered  into  her  ex- 
perience. Religious  teaching  was  not  compulsory  for 
non-Christian  pupils,  but,  when  the  sisters  and  their 
Christian  following  gathered  each  morning  for  prayers, 
the  doors  were  not  shut  and  among  other  onlookers 
came  Paru,  morning  after  morning,  drawn  partly  by 
curiosity,  partly  by  a  sense  of  being  left  out.  Never  in 
all  her  years  in  that  school  did  the  Hindu  child  join  in 
the  Christian  service,  but  at  home,  when  father  and 
mother  were  not  about,  she  gathered  her  sister  and 
younger  brothers  into  a  corner  and  taught  them  in 
childish  words  to  tell  their  wants  and  hopes  and  fears 
to  the  Father  in  Heaven. 

The  lawyer-father  was  the  abiding  influence  in  the 
daughter's  growth  of  mind  and  soul.  A  liberal  Hindu 
he  would  have  been  called.  In  reality,  he  was  one  of 
that  unreckoned  number,  the  Nicodemuses  of  India, 
who  come  to  Jesus  by  night,  who  render  Him  unspoken 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  149 

homage,  but  never  open  confession.  A  man  of  broad 
religious  interests,  he  read  the  Hindu  Gita,  the  Koran, 
and  the  Gospels;  and  among  them  all  the  words  of 
Jesus  held  pre-eminence  in  his  love  and  in  his  life. 
When  in  later  years  he  found  his  daughter  puzzling 
over  Bible  commentaries  to  clear  up  some  question  of 
faith,  he  asked  impatiently,  "Why  do  you  bother  with 
those  books?  Read  the  words  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels 
and  act  accordingly.  That  is  enough."  Father  and 
daughter  were  wonderful  comrades.  In  all  the  years 
of  separation  when,  as  student  and  doctor,  Paru  was 
held  on  the  opposite  side  of  India,  long  weekly  letters 
went  back  and  forth,  and  events  and  thoughts  were 
shared.  When  the  hour  of  decision  came,  and  the  girl 
ventured  into  untried  paths  where  the  father  could  not 
follow,  there  were  separation  and  misunderstanding  for 
a  time,  but  that  time  was  short.  The  home  visits  were 
soon  resumed  and  the  Christian  daughter  was  once 
more  free  to  share  home  and  meals  with  her  Hindu 
family.  And  when  one  day  the  father  said,  "If  a  per- 
son feels  a  certain  thing  to  be  his  duty,  he  should  do  it, 
whatever  the  cost,"  Paru  rejoiced,  for  she  knew  that 
her  forgiveness  was  sealed. 

Dr.  Paru's  entrance  into  the  world  of  medicine  was 
due  to  her  father's  wish  rather  than  her  own.  He  was 
of  that  rare  type  of  social  reformer  who  acts  more  than 
he  speaks.  Believing  that  eventually  his  daughter 
would  marry,  he  felt  that  as  a  doctor  from  her  own 
home  she  could  carry  relief  and  healing  into  her  small 
neighborhood.  Paru,  to  please  her  father,  went  into 


150  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

the  long  grind  of  medical  college,  conquered  her  aver- 
sion for  the  dissecting  table,  and  "made  good."  What 
does  he  think,  one  wonders,  as,  looking  upon  her  to-day 
with  the  clearer  vision  of  the  life  beyond,  he  sees  the 
beloved  daughter,  thoughts  of  home  and  husband  and 
children  put  aside,  but  with  her  name  a  household  word 
among  the  women  of  a  thousand  homes.  Ask  her 
what  she  thinks  of  medicine  as  a  woman's  profession 
and  her  answer  will  leave  no  doubt  whether  she  be- 
lieves it  worth  while. 

Actual  decision  for  Christ  was  a  thing  of  slow 
growth,  its  roots  far  back  in  memories  of  bright-cov- 
ered Gospels  and  convent  prayers,  fruit  of  open  con- 
fession maturing  only  during  her  years  of  service  at 
Guntur.  Life  in  the  Madras  Y.  W.  C.  A.  had  much  to 
do  with  it.  There  were  Indian  Christian  girls,  fellow 
students.  "No,"  said  Dr.  Paru,  "they  didn't  talk  much 
about  it;  they  had  Christian  ideals  and  tried  to  live 
them."  There  was  a  secretary,  too,  who  entered  into 
her  life  as  a  friend.  "Paru,"  she  said  at  last,  "you  are 
neither  one  thing  nor  the  other.  If  you  aren't  going  to 
be  a  Christian,  go  back  and  be  a  Hindu.  At  least,  be 
something."  At  Guntur  there  were  the  experiences  of 
Christian  service  and  fellowship.  Finally,  there  were 
words  spoken  at  a  Christian  meeting,  "words  that 
seemed  meant  for  me";  and  then  the  great  step  was 
taken,  and  Dr.  Paru  entered  into  the  liberty  that  has 
made  her  free  to  appear  outwardly  what  she  long  had 
been  at  heart. 

Such  are  a  few  of  those  Indian  women  whom  one 


WOMEN  WHO  Do  THINGS  151 

delights  to  honor.  They  broke  through  walls  of  cus- 
tom and  tradition  and  forced  their  way  into  the  open 
places  of  life.  Few  they  are  and  widely  scattered,  yet 
their  influence  is  past  telling. 

To-day  Lucknow,  Madras,  and  Vellore  are  sending 
out  each  year  their  quota  of  educated  women,  ready 
to  find  their  place  in  the  world's  work.  It  gives  one 
pause,  and  the  desire  to  look  into  the  future — and 
dream.  Ten  years  hence,  twenty,  fifty,  one  hundred! 
What  can  the  dreamer  and  the  prophet  foretell  ?  When 
those  whom  we  now  count  by  fives  and  tens  are  mul- 
tiplied by  the  hundred,  what  will  it  mean  for  the  future 
of  India  and  the  world?  What  of  the  gladness  of 
America  through  whose  hand,  outstretched  to  share, 
there  has  come  the  release  of  these  latent  powers  of 
India's  womanhood? 

But  what  of  the  powers  not  released  ?  What  of  the 
"mute,  inglorious"  company  of  those  who  have  had 
no  chance  to  become  articulate?  There  among  the 
road-menders,  going  back  and  forth  all  day  with  a 
basket  of  crushed  stone  upon  her  head,  toils  a  girl  in 
whose  hand  God  has  hidden  the  cunning  of  the  surgeon. 
No  one  suspects  her  powers,  she  least  of  all,  and  that 
undeveloped  skill  will  die  with  her,  undiscovered  and 
unapplied.  "To  what  purpose  ^s  this  waste  ?" 

Into  your  railway  carriage  comes  the  young  wife 
of  a  rajah.  Hidden  by  a  canopy  of  crimson  silk,  she 
makes  her  aristocratic  entrance  concealed  from  the 
common  gaze.  Her  life  is  spent  within  curtains.  Yet 
she  is  the  descendant  of  a  Mughal  ancestor  who  carried 


152  LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 

off  and  wedded  a  Rajput  maiden.  In  her  blood  is  the 
daring  of  Padmini,  the  executive  power  of  Nur  Jahan. 
With  mind  trained  and  exercised,  she  would  be  the 
administrative  head  of  a  woman's  college.  Again, — 
"To  what  purpose  is  this  waste?" 

Who  dares  to  compute  the  sum  total  of  lives  wasted 
among  the  millions  of  India's  women  because  undis- 
covered? \Vill  American  girls  grudge  their  gifts  to 
help  in  the  discovery  ?  Will  American  girls  grudge  the 
investment  of  their  lives? 


ONLY  like  souls  I  see  the  folk  thereunder, 
Bound  who  should  conquer,  slaves  who  should  be  kings, 
Hearing  their  one  hope  with  an  empty  wonder, 
Sadly  contented  with  a  show  of  things. 
Then  with  a  rush  the  intolerable  craving 
Shivers  throughout  me  like  a  trumpet  call; 
Oh,  to  save  these!    To  perish  for  their  saving, 
Die  for  their  life,  be  offered  for  them  all. 

MYERS 


THE  END 


A   REPRESENTATIVE    OF   INDIA'S   WOMANHOOD 

Miss  Lilavati  Singh,  M.  A.,  Acting  President  of  the 
Isabella  Thoburn  College,  who  died  in  Chicago  in  1909 
after  thirty-one  years  of  association  with  the  college  as 
teacher  and  pupil.  A  native  of  India,  but  a  master  of  the 
English  language,  she  was  the  first  woman  to  sit  on  a 
wo'- Id  committee,  having  been  president  of  the  Woman's 
Section  of  the  World  Student  Christian  Federation.  In 
this  capacity  she  lectured  in  Japan,  in  various  countries 
of  Western  Europe  and  in  the  United  States. 


INDEX 


Achievements    of    C  h  r  i  s  t  i- 

anity,    26-29;     of    women, 

130-152. 
Alliance,      an      international, 

83-109. 
America,     students     continue 

studies  in,  140. 
American    women,    gifts    of, 

to  Medical  School,   127. 
Anglo-Saxon   civilization,   15. 
Appasamy,  Mrs.  Paul,  135. 
Archeology,  revelations  of,  13. 
Aryan  invades  India,  the,  14. 
Art  Club,  88. 
Athletic  teams,  87. 
Athletics,  42-43. 
Azariah,  Mrs.,  131 ;  magazine 

edited  by,   133. 

Blue  Triangle,  with  the,  138- 

43. 

Brooke,  Rupert,  quoted,  127-8. 
Brown-skinned   tribes,   13. 
Basket  ball,  42-43. 
Butler,  Mrs.  William,  56. 

Calcutta,     Social     Service 

League  of,  142. 
Caste  and  pride  of  race,  14; 

broken  by  Dr.  Paru,  146. 
Chamberlain,  Miss,  106. 
Character,  training  women  in, 

and    college    education,    10. 
Chatterji,  Omiabala,  68. 
Child  marriage,  26. 
Child  welfare,  143-6. 
Child  widows  and  education, 

67. 

Children,  corpses — and,  115-6. 
Children's      Home      prevents 

disease,  beggary,  and  crime, 

116. 


Chinnappa,  Mrs.  See  Singhe, 
Dr.  Vera. 

Christ,  call  of,  must  be  heard 
to  redeem  the  women  of 
India,  5;  demonstration  of 
uplifting  influence  of,  de- 
mands college  education, 
10;  transforming  power 
through,  82;  power,  rev- 
elations of,  103. 

Christ's  gift  of  education,  3. 

Christian  education,  Hindu 
or,  31-32. 

Christian  ideals,  dirtribution 
of,  demands  college  educa- 
tion, 10. 

Christian  unity  in  education, 
84. 

Christian  women  and  need  of 
India,  4. 

Christian  workers,  training, 
demands  college  education, 
10. 

Christianity,  achievements  of, 
26-29;  Dr.  Paru  a  convert 
to,  147. 

Church  work  and  home  mak- 
ing, 131-4. 

Churches  should  practice  in- 
ternationalism, 6. 

Civilization,  dawn  of,  13;  of 
Anglo-Saxon  recent,  15. 

Cleanliness  inculcated,  72. 

Co-education  in  India,  59-60; 
discussed  by  students,  64. 

College,  why  go  to  ?  57-61 ; 
teachers  for  high  schools, 
58;  doctors  for  hospitals, 
58-59;  leadership,  59; 
motherhood,  59 ;  co-educa- 
tion, 59-60. 


153 


154 


LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 


College  education  and  future 
of  India,  10;  for  Indian 
girls  justified,  101. 

College  girls,  missionary  ser- 
vice one  of  the  greatest 
fields  for,  6. 

College  woman,  the,  and 
India,  93. 

College  women,  pioneer  ser- 
vices of,  81. 

Colleges,  Indian,  best  for  un- 
dergraduates, 6;  must  be 
made  truly  Christian  to  re- 
deem India,  6 ;  should  prac- 
tice internationalism,  6. 

Columbia  University,  83. 

"Conscience  clause,"  106. 

Co-operation  of  missions,  84. 

Co-operative  housekeeping, 
47-49. 

Corpses — and  children,  115-6. 

Cosmopolitan  atmosphere  of 
Lai  Bagh,  63. 

Cosmopolitan  Club,  83. 

Crime  prevented  by  Chil- 
dren's Home,  116. 

Death  rates  of  infants,  143-4. 
Debt  and  dowry  system,  100. 
Dissecting  room  at  Vellore, 

115. 
Doctor,     when     the,     passes, 

111-12;    where    no,    passes, 

112-3. 

Doctors  for  hospitals,   58-59. 
Dowry,  married  without,  101. 
Dowry  system,  100. 
Drama   at   Madras   Christian 

College,  108. 
Dramatic  Society,  88. 
Dramatics,  43-44. 
Dravidians,  13. 

Early  rising,   116. 
"Earth-thou-art,    Mrs.,"    119. 


East,  gifts  of,  to  West,  15- 
19;  to  West,  adjustments 
required  for  change  from, 
139. 

Education,  gift  of  Christ,  3; 
proved  that  Indian  girls 
can  receive,  4;  of  Indian 
girl,  22;for  girls,  27;  Hindu 
or  Christian,  31-32;  an  in- 
strument to  break  down 
seclusion  of  the  zenanas, 
56;  college,  and  leadership, 
59;  college,  and  mother- 
hood, 59;  and  early  mar- 
riage, 67;  and  child  widows, 
67;  and  world  peace,  83-84; 
"triangular  alliance"  in,  83 ; 
Christian  unity  in  84;  col- 
lege, for  Indian  girls  justi- 
fied, 101 ;  missions  can  not 
long  meet  demand  for,  104- 
5 ;  Christian,  Indian  men 
testify  to  value  of,  106.  See 
School. 

Educated  classes  of  India,  to 
meet  needs  of,  demands 
college  education,  10. 

England,  students  continue 
studies  in,  104. 

English,  conquest  of,  the  big 
job  at  high  school,  40. 

Examination  papers  of  stu- 
dents, 105. 

Fellowship,  American,  at  Lai 

Bagh,   63. 
Findley,  Dr.,  118. 
"Flivver,"  an  Indian,  110. 
Folk-lore,     woman     in,     16; 

woman  heroine  of,  17-18. 
Ford,  the,  in  a  new  capacity, 

118-9. 
Future     of     India     demands 

college  education,  10. 


INDEX 


155 


Future?  what  of,  151. 

Gandhi,  Mr.,  and  Miss  Maya 
Das,  141. 

Garden  of  hid  treasure  the, 
57-82. 

George,  Miss,  84. 

Girl,  Indian,  today,  21-24;  un- 
educated, 22;  marriage  of, 
23-24;  life  of,  32-37;  school 
life  of,  40;  religion  of,  49; 
why  go  to  college  ?  57-61 ; 
Girl  students  at  Vellore 
Medical  School,  121 ;  who 
they  are,  121 ;  why  they 
came,  121 ;  their  future,  125. 

Girls,  proved  that  Indian,  can 
be  educated,  4;  education 
of,  27;  high  school,  where 
they  come  from,  37-38; 
what  they  study,  39-40; 
Indian,  college  education 
for,  justified,  101. 

God  alone  will  not  redeem 
India,  5 ;  in  nature,  50-52 ; 
transforming  world 
through  Christ,  82. 

Goreh,  Ellen  L  a  k  s  h  m  i, 
quoted,  80. 

Government.  See  Student 
government. 

Graduate  from  Madras 
Christian  College,  letter 
from,  103. 

Griscom,  Dr.,  118,  120. 

Guntur  Women's  Hospital, 
147. 

Harischandra,  43-44. 

Heal,  sent  forth  to,  110-29. 

High  school,  at,  37-55;  where 
girls  are  from,  37-38; 
studies,  39-40;  conquest  of 
English,  40;  life  of  girls, 


40;  athletics,  42-43;  basket 
ball,  42-43;  dramatics,  43- 
44 ;  Harischandra,  43-44 ; 
student  government,  44-47; 
co-operative  housekeeping, 
47-49;  religion  of  girls,  49- 
52;  religion  made  practical, 
52;  outlets  for  religious 
emotion,  53-55 ;  teachers 
for,  58. 

Hindu  or  Christian  educa- 
tion, 31-32. 

Hindu  lawyer  prefers  Gos- 
pels to  sacred  books  of 
India,  148-9. 

Hinduism,  actualities  of,  un- 
printable, 3 ;  and  Christi- 
anity, 26-29 ;  to  Christianity, 
Dr.  Paru  a  convert  from, 
147. 

History  Club,  89. 

Home  life  and  college  women, 
96. 

Home  making  and  church 
work,  131-4. 

Homemakers,  training,  de- 
mands college  education,  10. 

Hospital,  in  a,  146. 

Hospital  wards  at  Vellore, 
117-8. 

Hospitals,  doctors  for,  58-59. 

Houses  at  Vellore,  115. 

Housekeeping,  co-operative, 
47-49. 

Idol,  wives  of  the,  25-26. 

"In  the  Secret  of  His  Pres- 
ence," 80. 

India,  poetry  of,  felt  to  be 
insincere,  3;  no  place  for 
redemption  of  woman  in 
the  religions  of,  3;  need  of, 
can  only  be  met  by  edu- 
c  a  t  e  d  Indian  Christian 


15G 


LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 


women,  4;  silent  revolution 
has  begun  in,  5;  God  alone 
\\ill  not  redeem,  5;  future 
of,  demands  college  edu- 
cation, 10;  the  Aryan  in- 
vades, 14;  Muhammadans 
invade,  18;  co-education  in, 
59-60;  superstition  in,  92; 
and  the  college  woman,  93 ; 
medical  needs  of,  and  sup- 
ply of  women  physicians, 
125. 

Indian  conditions,  worship 
adapted  to,  132. 

Industrial  education,  134; 
lessons  in  sewing,  144. 

Infants,  death  rates  of,  143-4. 

Isabella  Thoburn  College,  be- 
ginnings of,  56.  See  Lai 
Bagh. 

International  alliance,  an,  83- 
109. 

Internationalism,  let  churches 
and  colleges  practice,  6. 

Jahan,  Shah,  21. 
Janaki,  Miss,  84. 

Karma,  24. 

Kindergarten,    Indian,   39. 
Kinnaird  College,   140. 
Kipling    quoted,     109;    cited, 

110. 
Kugler,  Dr.,  147. 

Lai  Bagh,  61-82;  cosmopol- 
itan atmosphere,  63;  schol- 
arship, 63 ;  American  fel- 
lowship, 63 ;  first  fellow, 
63;  social  questions,  64; 
co-education  discussed,  64; 
early  marriage  and  child 
widows,  67;  purdah  discuss- 
ed, 67-72;  social  services, 


72-79 ;  cleanliness  incul- 
cated, 72;  religious  in- 
struction by  students,  72; 
medical  instruction  by  stu- 
dents, 73;  reading  taught 
by  students,  73 ;  sewing,  73 ; 
purdah  park  suggested,  74; 
social  service  during  va- 
cation, 74;  social  service 
and  strikes,  75 ;  visiting  the 
poor  and  sick,  76;  what 
alumnae  records  show,  81. 
See  Isabella  Thoburn  Col- 
lege. 

Lamp  and  the  sunflower,  85. 

Languages  at  Madras  Chris- 
tian College,  84. 

Leadership  forced  upon  edu- 
cated Indian  girls,  4;  train- 
ing native,  demands  col- 
lege education,  10;  and 
college  education,  59. 

Legal  profession  for  women, 
94. 

Lela,  Chandra,  130. 

Licentiate  in  teaching,  104, 
105. 

Life  of  Indian  girl,  21-24,  32- 
37. 

"Lighted  to  lighten,"  89. 

Literary  and  Debating  Socie- 
ties, 87. 

Literature ;  magazine  edited 
by  Mrs.  Azariah,  133. 

Lucknow,  61-82. 

Lyon,   Mary,    57. 

Madras  Christian  College, 
letter  from  student  at,  82 ; 
"triangular  alliance,  83 ; 
inter-missionary,  84;  nine 
languages  represented,  84; 
sunflower  and  the  lamp, 
85;  campus  of,  86;  student 


INDEX 


157 


organizations,  87 ;  student 
government,  87 ;  athletic 
teams,  87;  Literary  and 
Debating  Societies,  87; 
Star  Club,  87;  Natural  His- 
tory Club,  88 ;  Art  Club,  88 ; 
Dramatic  and  Musical 
Societies,  88;  History  Club, 
89 ;  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  89 ;  social 
service,  90-91 ;  applied  psy- 
chology, 91 ;  The  Sunflower, 
91;  superstitions,  92;  the 
college  woman  and  India, 
93;  teaching,  93;  legal  pro- 
fession, 94;  politics,  94; 
home  life,  96;  what  one 
reformer  achieved,  97 ; 
dowry  system,  100;  college 
education  for  women  justi- 
fied, 101 ;  letter  from  grad- 
uate, 103;  extract  from 
journal  of  teacher  in,  104- 
108 ;  students  continue 
studies  in  England  and 
America,  104;  licentiates  in 
teaching,  104,  105 ;  exami- 
nation papers,  105 ;  student 
body  of,  106;  "conscience 
clause,"  106;  effort  to  aid 
cause  of  nationalism,  107; 
social  service  by  students, 
107;  students  of,  love 
Shakespeare,  107;  drama 
at,  108;  students  collect 
fund  for  science  building, 
108. 

Madras  Corporation  Child 
Welfare  Scheme,  143-4. 

Madras  Mothers'  Union,  133. 

McDougall,  Miss  Eleanor,  84. 

Magazine  edited  by  Mrs. 
Azariah,  133. 

Manikin,  makeshift,  120. 

Manu,  laws  of,  18. 


Marriage  of  Indian  girl,  23- 
24. 

Marriage,  early,  and  educa- 
tion, 67.  See  Child  mar- 
riage ;  Dowry  system. 

Maya  Das,  Dora,  138-43 ;  and 
Mr.  Gandhi,  141. 

Medical  instruction  by  stu- 
dents, 73. 

Medical  needs  of  India  and 
supply  of  women  physi- 
cians, 125. 

Medical  School,  Vellore.  See 
Vellore  Medical  School. 

Medical  service,   111-12. 

Medical  treatment,  ignorant, 
125,  128;  superstition  in, 
145. 

Mid-wife,  work  of  a,  145. 

Mid-wives,  ignorant,  125,  128, 
145. 

Mission  boards,  fourteen,  sup- 
port Madras  Christian  Col- 
lege, 84. 

Missions,  criticism  of,  11-12; 
can  not  long  meet  demand 
for  education,  104-5. 

Missionary  service  one  of 
greatest  fields  for  college 
girls,  6. 

"Moral  equivalent  of  war,"  5. 

Morality  and  religion  unre- 
lated, 52. 

Motherhood  and  college  edu- 
cation, 59. 

Mt.  Holyoke  College  and 
Mary  Lyon,  57 ;  fi  r  s  t 
Indian  student  at,  138. 

Muhammadans  invade  India, 
18. 

Multiplication,  problem  in,  113. 

Musical  Society,  88. 

Myers  quoted,  152. 


158 


LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 


Naidu,  Mrs.  Sarojini,  27. 

Nala  and   Damayanti,    17. 

Natural  History  Club,  88. 

Nature,  God  in,  50-52. 

National  life  of  India,  train- 
ing women  for,  demands 
college  education,  10. 

National  Missionary  Society, 
136-7. 

Nationalism,  effort  to  aid 
cause  of,  107. 

Nur  Jahan,  "the  light  of  the 
world,"  20-21. 

Nurses'  Home  of  Vellore 
Medical  School,  119. 

Obstetrics,    makeshift    mani- 
kin for  teaching,  120. 
"Once  upon  a  time,"  13. 
Opportunities  for  service,  135. 
Organizations  of  students,  87. 

Palm  trees,  school  under, 
32-37. 

Parker,   Mrs.  Edwin  W.,  56. 

Paru,  Dr.,  146-150;  breaks 
caste,  146;  father  of,  pre- 
fers Gospels  to  sacred 
books  of  India,  148-9. 

Peace.    See  World  peace. 

Physic ians,  women.  See 
Women  physicians. 

Pioneer  services  of  college 
women,  81. 

Poem  by  Rabindranath 
Tagore,  129. 

Poetry  of  India,  3. 

Politics,  training  women  for, 
demands  college  education, 
10;  women  in,  94. 

Poor,  visiting  the,  76. 

Prostitution,  religious,  25-26; 
protected,  52. 

Public  service,  134-8. 


Purdah,  origin  of,  19;  dis- 
cussed, 67-72. 

Purdah   parks   suggested,   74. 

Pushpam  and  her  work  as  a 
reformer,  98. 

Race,  pride  of,  and  caste,  14. 
Rama  and  Sita,  16-17. 
Ramabai,  Pandita,  130,  135. 
Reading   taught  by   students, 

73. 
Redemption    of    woman,    no 

place    for,    in    religions    of 

India,  3. 
Reform,  26-29. 
Reformer,  one,  and  what  she 

achieved,  97. 
Religion,  the  Indian  girl's,  49 ; 

and  morality  unrelated,  52; 

made  practical,  52. 
Religions  of   India,  no  place 

for   redemption  of  woman 

in  the,  3. 
Religious   education,    aim   of, 

103. 
Religious  emotion,  outlets  for. 

53-55. 

Religious  instruction  by  stu- 
dents, 72. 

Revolution,  silent,  5. 
Roads,  metalled,  in  India,  110. 
Rukkubai,  28-29. 

Salvation,  yearning  for,  of 
souls,  Myers,  152. 

Sarber,   Miss,    106. 

Schell  Hospital,   117. 

Scholarship  at  Lai  Bagh,  63. 

School,  at,  31-37;  Hindu  or 
Christian,  31-32 ;  under 
palm  trees,  32-37.  See  Edu- 
cation. 

School  life  of  Indian  girl,  40. 

Science  building,  students 
collect  fund  for,  108. 


INDEX 


159 


Scudder,    Dr.    Ida,    109,    113, 

120. 

Sent  forth  to  heal,  110-29. 
Servants  of  India  Society,  29. 
Serveth,    among   you    as    He 

that,  53-55. 
Service,   great  field   for,    for 

college  girls,  6;  public,  134- 

8-. 
Sewing    taught    by    students, 

73;  lessons  in,   144. 

Shakespeare  loved  by  stu- 
dents, 107. 

Sick,  visiting  the,  76. 

Singh,  Lilavati,  130. 

Singh  e,  Dr.  Vera,  143; 
quoted,  145. 

Sirkir,  Miss,  137. 

Site,  new,  of  Vellore  Medical 
College,  120. 

Social  life,  moralizing,  de- 
mands college  education,  10. 

Social  questions  discussed  by 
students,  64. 

Social  services  of  Lai  Bagh 
students,  72-79 ;  during 
vacation,  74;  and  strikes, 
75;  at  Madras,  90-91;  by 
students  of  Madras  Chris- 
tian College,  107;  in  out- 
caste  villages,  138. 

Social  Service  League  of  Cal- 
cutta, 142. 

Sociology,  applied,  91. 

Solidarity  of  the  world,  11- 
12. 

Song  of  the  Women,  The, 
quoted,  109. 

Sorabji,  Cornelia,  94. 

Sorabji  sisters,  130. 

Star  Club,  87. 

Stone  age,  remains  of,  13. 

Strikes  and  social  service,  75. 

Student    body   of    Madras 


Christian  College,  106;  at 
Vellore  Medical  School.  See 
Girl  students. 

Student  government,  87,  44- 
47. 

Student  organizations,  87. 

Students,  examination  papers 
of,  105;  collect  fund  for 
science  building,  108. 

Summer  school  for  rural 
workers,  142. 

Sunflower  and  the  lamp,  85. 

Sunflower,  The,  college  mag- 
azine, 91. 

Superstition  in  India,  92;  in 
medical  treatment,  145. 

Suttee,  25. 

Tagore,  Rabindranath,  poem 
by,  129. 

Taj   Mahal,  21. 

Talisman,  reliance  upon,  146. 

Tank  described,  34. 

Teachers  for  high  schools,  58. 

Teaching  as  occupation,  93; 
licentiate  in,  104,  105. 

Telugu  outcastes,  missionary 
work  among,  131. 

Temples,  vile  things  connected 
with,  3. 

Thillayampalam,  first  fellow 
from  Isabella  Thoburn  Col- 
lege, 63. 

Thoburn,   Isabella,   56. 

Thumboo,    Regina,   63-64. 

Tinnevelly  Missionary  So- 
ciety, 131. 

Today,  yesterday  and,   13-29. 

Traditions  of  womanhood, 
15-21. 

Trail,  the  long,  a-winding, 
110. 

Transportation,  Indian,  110. 

Treasure,  the  garden  of  hid, 
57-82. 


160 


LIGHTED  TO  LIGHTEN 


Triplicane  Health  Centre,  144. 

Union  Missionary  Medical 
School  for  Women,  Vellore. 
See  Vellore  Medical 
School. 

Vacation,  social  service  dur- 
ing, 74. 

Veil,  use  of,  19. 

Vellore  Medical  School,  needs 
of,  109;  modest  start  of, 
113;  scholarship  at,  114;  Li- 
censed Medical  Practitioner, 
115;  visit  to,  115;  housing 
shortage  at,  115;  corpses — 
and  children,  115-6;  dis- 
secting room,  115;  early 
rising,  116;  Schell  Hospi- 
tal,117;  the  Ford  in  a  new 
capacity,  118-9;  Nurses' 
Home,  119;  makeshift 
manikin,  120;  new  site,  120; 
who  the  students  are  121 ; 
why  the  students  came,  121 ; 
future  of  the  students, 
125 ;  medical  needs  of 
India,  125;  ignorant  medi- 
cal treatment,  125,  129; 
gifts  of  American  women 
to,  127. 

Villages,  outcaste,  social  ser- 
vice in,  138. 

Vincent,  Shelomith,  77. 

Visiting  the  poor  and  sick,  76. 

"War,  moral  equivalent  of," 
5. 

Waste?  to  what  purpose,  151. 

West,  gifts  of  East  to,  15-19. 

Widowhood,  25-26 ;  compul- 
sory, 27-28. 


Wives  of  the  idol,  25-26. 

Woman,  redemption  of,  no 
place  for,  in  the  religions 
of  India,  3 ;  in  folk-lore, 
16;heroine  of  folk-love,  17- 
18;  and  laws  of  Manu,  18. 
See  Girl. 

Woman's  Christian  College, 
Madras.  See  Madras  Chris- 
tian College. 

Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  56. 

Womanhood,  traditions  of, 
15-21. 

Women,  Indian,  are  asserting 
their  rights,  5;  gifts  of 
American,  and  Vellore 
Medical  School,  127;  who 
do  things,  130-152. 

Women  physicians,  pre-med- 
ical  training  of,  demands 
college  education,  10;  ef- 
forts to  increase  number  of, 
113;  supply  of,  and  India's 
medical  needs,  125. 

World,  solidarity  of,  11-12. 

World  peace  and  education, 
83-84. 

Worship  adapted  to  Indian 
conditions,  132. 

Yesterday  and  today,  13-29. 

Young  Women's  Christian 
Association  of  Madras  Col- 
lege, 89. 

Zenanas,  opening  of,  through 
education,  56. 


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